On Saturday morning, explosions rang out across Iran, with smoke billowing over Tehran, while sirens wailed in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Israel had launched a war against Iran, with the Israelis calling it Operation Roar of the Lion. Israelis were told to prepare for incoming Iranian missiles.
The US called it a “huge and ongoing” operation, naming it Operation Epic Fury. “This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and power of the United States Armed Forces,” President Donald Trump said in a social media post.
Iranian state TV confirmed Sunday morning that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for nearly four decades, had been assassinated. Satellite imagery shows widespread destruction in their residential complex.
What did Israel and America attack?
Initial reports indicated that the attacks on Tehran affected areas around Pasteur Street in Tehran, near the Presidential Administration of Iran. Iranian news agencies also reported explosions in other cities.
These include Isfahan, where the attack was reported near the site of a nuclear complex that was attacked by both the US and Israel during last year’s 12-day war; Kermanshah, in northwestern Iran, home to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base; and Shiraz, where Israel alleges Iran has a large underground missile production facility.
The local judiciary said a missile attack on a school in the city of Minab killed 108 people.
Most of the dozens of attacks recorded in Iran on Saturday occurred before 1 p.m. Tehran time, according to LiveUA data.
Trump said Washington wants to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons and destroy its ability to make long-range missiles that can reach the United States.
But he also called on the Iranian people to “take charge of their government” after the attacks end.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel’s Northern Command launched several strikes in southern Lebanon against what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure.
Israel warned the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah not to rush to Iran’s defense.
What military assets does the US have?
The US has about 40,000 troops spread across bases and ships in the region, and has amassed its largest naval force in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Washington’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was in the Mediterranean this week, seen off Israel’s northern coast on Friday, while the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group was off the coast of Oman this month.
The two strike groups consist of one carrier and three guided-missile destroyers, which have a range of weapons to attack and defend their own troops and those of partner nations.
The carrier also has dozens of aircraft and helicopters, including F-18s, E-2 airborne early-warning aircraft and cargo planes. Gerald R Ford also has F-35 jets. America has also sent aircraft to bases in this region.
The US has deployed additional Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense and Patriot air-defense systems. Both were used in the 2025 War and earlier attacks, depleting their stockpile of interceptors.
The US operates eight permanent bases in the Middle East in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. It has access to about a dozen other military sites, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
The largest is Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar – headquarters for US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. There are about 10,000 soldiers at the base. In June, Iran fired missiles at Al Udeid in response to the US bombing of the republic’s three main nuclear facilities.
How is Iran reacting?
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards force said on Saturday it had launched a massive attack on US bases in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as “military and security centers” in Israel.
“Missile and drone attacks by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue,” it said.
Verified footage posted on social media showed a large explosion at the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet base in Juffair, Bahrain, which serves as the headquarters for US naval operations in the Middle East.
Qatar said it had “intercepted and neutralized” three waves of Iranian missile attacks targeting several areas across the country, while Jordan said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles.
Saudi Arabia said Iran had targeted its capital Riyadh and its oil-rich eastern province. Kuwait said a drone struck its international airport, causing limited damage.
Israel declared a state of emergency, closed its airspace and most businesses, and banned gatherings. Israeli air defenses intercepted most of the missiles in the Iranian attack, although fragments and shrapnel caused a small number of injuries.
American THAAD batteries and other security equipment are also deployed to protect Israel.
Along with medium to long-range missiles capable of attacking Israel, Iran has a large number of short-range ballistic and cruise missiles capable of attacking US bases and naval assets.
When the US attacked Iran in June last year, Tehran’s response was swift – colluding with Washington to avoid escalating tensions. Air defense forces shot down Iranian missiles aimed at Al Udeid, which were evacuated.
During two conflicts with Israel in 2024 and 2025, Iran fired hundreds of long-range ballistic missiles, slow-moving cruise missiles and drones. Most were shot down, but dozens overran Israel’s air defenses and attacked or approached sensitive military targets, including the Mossad headquarters.
Iran has learned to fine-tune the speed and timing of salvos to maximize their effectiveness. The US and Israel’s stockpiles of interceptor rockets are at unprecedented lows, increasing the risk of this conflict.
But firing those missiles reveals the location of the launchers. Israel has previously attacked launch sites immediately after missiles are fired, a tactic it calls “killing the archer.”
Will the conflict expand?
Tehran has been replenishing its missile arsenal since last June, after firing more than 500 during its brief war with Israel. Experts estimate the combined missile stockpile to number in the thousands, capable of an extended salvo war.
Mining in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for global energy supplies from the Gulf, is another option for retaliation. But that could provoke a reaction from China, which is heavily dependent on Gulf oil.
Many ships turned back from the strait on Saturday after the Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that the waterway was now unsafe for them. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said the strait had been “effectively” closed.
Gulf countries also fear that Iran could attack energy infrastructure. In 2019, Iran was blamed for an attack in Saudi Arabia that temporarily knocked out half of the kingdom’s crude oil production.
Iran could harass or seize nearby individual tankers as it did in 2019, or direct allied militias to attack regional energy infrastructure. Regional proxies such as the Houthis or Iraqi Shia militias may attack embassies or lightly defended targets.
As recently as November, Iran-backed groups were blamed for a rocket attack on the Khor Mor gasfield in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Speaking before the attack, John Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said he expected retaliatory measures. “Iran has never been interested in a long-term conventional war,” he said.
What are the implications for oil?
Oil markets in Asia will not reopen until Monday morning, but Brent crude rose 3 percent on Friday to a seven-month high of $73 a barrel.
The international oil benchmark has risen nearly 12 percent in the past month as markets braced for potential supply disruptions from the US-Iran conflict. But it remains below the level of more than $80 it briefly touched during the 12-day war in June.
Iran exports about 2 percent of the global oil supply, much of it to China. More importantly, it has an impact on the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 30 percent of the world’s seaborne oil trade passed last year.
Despite repeated threats from Tehran, the strait was never closed. Energy flows were not interrupted during last summer’s war with Israel. Still, the surge in crude oil prices during that conflict underlined how sensitive markets are to risks in the region.
Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Simeon Kerr and Sam Joiner
