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President Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. bombing operation in Iran might extend over the next week or continue for as long as needed. This statement suggests a potentially prolonged military campaign.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump declared, “The intense and targeted bombing will persist without interruption throughout the week or as long as it takes to fulfill our mission of achieving PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND, ULTIMATELY, THE WORLD!” In the same update, he revealed that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had died.
The joint U.S. and Israeli initiative, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” commenced at 1:15 a.m. EST. The airstrikes targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centers, missile and drone launch sites, military airfields, and Iran’s air defense systems.
According to Iran’s Red Crescent, over 200 lives were lost, and nearly 750 individuals were injured in the strikes, as reported by Iranian state media. The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) is investigating claims that a girls’ school in southern Iran was hit, allegedly resulting in the deaths of more than 80 students, according to Iranian officials.
Subsequently, Trump confirmed the death of Khamenei, marking the end of his 36-year leadership. This announcement followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s similar statement regarding Khamenei’s demise.
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” Trump said in the same Truth Social post. “We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us.”
The president added that this “process should soon be starting.” Trump echoed these statements in an overnight video posted online, telling the Iranians that they now have “a president who is giving you what you want.”
The strikes come after negotiations between U.S. and Iranian diplomats stalled over the country’s nuclear program. Trump and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have stood firm in opposing Iran developing a nuclear weapon, which it has denied for years.
Members of Congress reacted along party lines, with Democrats calling on the House to force a vote on a war powers resolution and Republicans praising Trump for authorizing the strikes.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who on the campaign trail against Trump called Iran in October 2023 America’s “greatest adversary,” said she opposed the “regime change war” in Iran.
“What we are witnessing is not strength,” she wrote on the social platform X. “It is recklessness dressed up as resolve. I know the threat that Iran poses, and they must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, but this is not the way to dismantle that threat.”