US and Israel strike Iran, targeting its top leaders

The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, targeting its leadership and plunging the Middle East into a new conflict that President Donald Trump said would end a security threat to the U.S. and give Iranians a chance to topple their rulers. Explosions also rang out in nearby oil-producing Gulf Arab countries, which said they had intercepted missiles from Iran after Tehran warned it would strike the region if it was attacked.

The first wave of strikes in what the Pentagon named “OPERATION EPIC FURY” mainly targeted Iranian officials, a source familiar with the matter said. An Israeli official said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were both targeted but the result of the strikes was not clear. A source with knowledge of the matter had earlier told Reuters that Khamenei was not in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location.

An Iranian source close to the establishment said several senior commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and political officials had been killed. Forty people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school, state media said. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

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Hopes dim for diplomatic solution to nuclear dispute The renewed confrontation between Iran and its long-time foes dimmed hopes of a diplomatic solution to Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the West. The latest indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran this week failed to produce a breakthrough.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said all U.S. bases and interests in the region were within Iran’s reach and that the retaliation would continue until “the enemy is decisively defeated”. Iran’s foreign minister told counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq that Tehran would use all its defensive and military capabilities to defend itself.

Loud booms sounded in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, an oil producer and U.S. Fighter jets flew around the Yas Island area of Abu Dhabi on Saturday afternoon and blasts were heard in the country’s business capital Dubai. Bahrain said the service center of the U.S.

Fifth Fleet had been subjected to a missile attack. Video footage from witnesses in Bahrain showed a thick grey plume of smoke rising from near the small island state’s coastline as sirens wailed. Fellow Gulf Arab state Qatar said it had downed all missiles targeting the country and that it had a right to respond. Sirens were later heard in its capital Doha.

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