Live Updates: U.S. Attacks Iran as Trump Calls for Overthrow of Government
Explosions resounded in Tehran as President Trump said that the United States had begun a large assault. Air-raid sirens blared in Israel, which also said it was striking Iran. Aaron Boxerman Tyler Pager Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman President Trump announced on Saturday that the United States had launched a major attack on Iran, vowing to devastate the country’s military, eliminate its nuclear program and bring about a change in its government. Massive explosions resounded in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where residents reported seeing smoke rising from the district that includes the presidential palace and the National Security Council. The region was broadly on edge over the potential scope of retaliation from the attack, jointly coordinated with Israel. Iran fired missiles at Israel, prompting huge booms overhead as Israeli air defenses sought to intercept them. Air raid sirens blared in Bahrain where there are American bases, while the U.S. embassies in Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates directed all staff to shelter-in-place and recommended that all Americans in those countries do the same. The American-led campaign’s scope went well beyond the attack against Iran’s nuclear program last year that Mr. Trump oversaw. This time, Mr. Trump vowed “to raze their missile industry to the ground” and “annihilate their navy,” arguing that Iran had refused to reach a deal with the United States that would have averted war. He then called on Iranians to overthrow their government when the U.S. military assault came to an end. “It will be yours to take,” he said. “This will be probably your only chance for generations.” Dozens of U.S. strikes are being carried out by attack planes from bases and aircraft carriers around the Middle East, one U.S. officials said. The focus of the American strikes for the moment is military targets in Iran, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters. The attacks began on Saturday morning, the first day of the Iranian workweek, as millions of people were at work and school. Explosions were also heard in other cities across Iran, including Isfahan and Karaj, according to the semiofficial news agency, Fars. The attack followed weeks of rising tensions as Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to strike Iran unless the country’s leadership agreed to U.S. demands. American and Iranian officials held a last-ditch round of mediated talks on Thursday over Tehran’s nuclear program. The talks ended without a breakthrough, apparently paving the way for the attack. Here’s what else to know: Chaos in Tehran: Ali Zeinalipoor, a Tehran resident, described watching a massive plume of smoke billowing from nearby Pasteur Street. “I rushed to school to get my daughter from middle school, the girls were hiding under the stairs and crying,” he said. Trump’s video: Mr. Trump, standing behind a lectern and wearing a white USA hat, said in an eight-minute video that the U.S. objective was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” He added that “its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.” Read more › Last year’s strikes: The United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities last June during a 12-day-war between Israel and Iran. While Mr. Trump initially said the Iranian nuclear program had been “obliterated” by those American strikes, it later emerged that the effort had been degraded, not decisively destroyed. Read more › Israel readies for retaliation: Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, announced his country’s strikes in a statement, adding that the country would be under a state of emergency. Anticipating potential Iranian retaliation, the Israeli government announced that schools, workplaces, and the country’s international airspace would close, effective immediately. The U.S. Embassy in Jordan has issued shelter in place orders for all personnel and recommends “all Americans do the same until further notice.” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council released a statement on Telegram. “The enemy thinks that the innocent nation of Iran will surrender to their despicable demands with these cowardly actions,” it said. “The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have launched a crushing response to their vicious actions.” Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, has reported explosions in the city of Urmia, in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, about 30 miles from the border with Turkey. The British government issued a statement Saturday morning saying it did not participate in the strikes on Iran and does “not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict,” adding that the country had recently bolstered defensive capabilities in the Middle East. The additional capabilities include F-35 and Typhoon fighter jets, radars and counter-drone systems, officials said. Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency reported that Iranian missile attacks targeted U.S. military bases around the region, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. Lebanon’s top leaders on Saturday called on all parties to prioritize the welfare of the country and its citizens as strikes in Iran began. The remarks appeared directed at Hezbollah, as questions persist over whether the weakened, Iran-backed group might somehow enter the conflict in support of Iran. Israel’s military said it is conducting a further wave of wide-ranging strikes on “military targets” in western Iran. The Israeli military said its air force is currently carrying out a broad wave of strikes on multiple military targets belonging to the Iranian regime in western Iran. “The great test of history has arrived,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a lengthy statement in response to the attacks. It accused the United States of once again launching an attack while the two sides were in negotiations, as they had been before the June war. “The people of Iran are proud that they did everything possible to prevent war,” it said. “Just as we were ready for negotiations, we are more prepared than ever to defend the Iranian nation.” The Iranian foreign ministry urged the U.N. Security Council “to take immediate action to confront the violation of international peace and security due to the clear military aggression of the United States and the Zionist regime against Iran.” “History is proof that Iranians have never surrendered to foreign aggression,” the Iranian foreign ministry said. “This time too, the response of the Iranian nation will be decisive and will make the aggressors regret their criminal act.” Qatar’s Ministry of Defense said that it has “successfully thwarted a number of attacks” targeting its territory. Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at an American military base near the Qatari capital, Doha, last June in response to the American bombing of its nuclear sites last summer. Four U.S.-American strikes have hit an area southwest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, according to the Sabereen news agency, which is affiliated with Kata’ib Hezbollah, the most powerful Iraqi militia allied with neighboring Iran. The group has been present in that area of Baghdad for years. A handout photo made available by the Iranian Army Office in 2025 shows a projectile being launched during a military drill at an undisclosed location in Iran.Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock The scope and scale of the coordinated strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran that began early on Saturday appear to be far more extensive than the military operation ordered by President Trump against Iran last June, with Mr. Trump saying the new campaign would be “massive.” In the initial wave, the U.S. carried out dozens of strikes with attack planes launched from bases around the Middle East and from one or more aircraft carriers, a U.S. official said. The warplanes are part of the largest U.S. military buildup since the Iraq War in 2003, and the deployment includes two aircraft carriers, a number of naval destroyers and more than 50 fighter planes. The focus of the American strikes for the moment is military targets in Iran, a U.S. official said. Besides its nuclear facilities, Iran is believed to have more than 2,000 missiles, primarily short- and medium-range ballistic missiles that threaten Israel and American forces across the region. Those missiles are scattered at launch sites across Iran and were among the first targets, U.S. military officials said. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” Mr. Trump vowed in an eight-minute video posted on social media early Saturday. The president suggested that the aim was to destroy much of Iran’s substantial military capability. “We’re going to annihilate their Navy,” Mr. Trump said in the video. “We’re are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans. And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message.” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a theology-driven force that reports directly to the Iranian supreme leader, is estimated to have close to 200,000 members. Iran has a fleet of hundreds of fast boats that specialize in swarm attacks in the Persian Gulf. It has a massive arsenal of 3,000 to 6,000 naval mines that can enable it to temporarily close off the Strait of Hormuz. The scope of the American attacks carries huge risks, as Mr. Trump acknowledged in saying that the campaign could result in American casualties. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, had cautioned Mr. Trump in recent private meetings that American troops could be killed or injured. Mr. Trump seemed to acknowledge General Caine’s warning, and appeared to already be taking steps to shield himself from what will certainly be an avalanche of criticism if there are substantial American casualties. The Pentagon had moved some troops in the region to different locations in advance of Saturday’s attacks. “My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region,” Mr. Trump said. “Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill,” he said. “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties.” He added: “That often happens in war.” American officials say they expect the strikes on Iran to extend for several days, if not weeks. Mr. Trump, in his remarks, suggested that he wanted to overwhelm the Iranian military to the point that its more than 600,000 troops — and even its police force — give up any fight. “To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or, in the alternative, face certain death,” Mr. Trump said. Two American military officials said on Friday that it was unclear whether Mr. Trump and senior officials who were pushing for the sweeping military operation understood the depth of many Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ distaste for the United States, or the complexities of the forces that this military campaign may unleash. Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, has now twice said that the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is safe. The announcements come at a time when there is still a great amount of confusion over who or what has been hit. Several Iranian news outlets have reported strikes on the gated compound where both Pezeshkian and Iran’s supreme leader normally reside. Bahrain’s state news agency said that the service center of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet had been subject to a missile attack. Several witnesses in Juffair, a district of the Bahraini capital Manama, home to the naval base, reported hearing a loud explosion. Internet connectivity in Iran has plummeted to just 4 percent of usual levels, according to the monitoring group NetBlocks. Iranians only just emerged from a longrunning internet and communications blackout imposed by the authorities last month during the state crackdown on nationwide protests. During the war with Israel and the United States last June, Iranians also went for days without regular internet access. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement on Telegram that it had launched a wave of missiles and drones on Israel in retaliation to the strikes. Two weeks ago, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told me he expected it would be weeks, not months, before the United States launched an attack aimed at toppling the Iranian government. That prediction appears to have been correct. He said in an interview at the time that “Israel can’t do it by themselves” and the United States should have “our fingerprints on this operation.” United States embassies in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have directed all staff to shelter-in-place and recommended all Americans in those countries do the same. Just as Iranians began their workweek on Saturday morning, U.S. and Israeli strikes sent panicked residents of Tehran into the streets and parents racing back to schools where they had just dropped off their children. Chaos and uncertainty set in as explosions shook the densely populated city, Iran’s capital, according to witnesses who spoke to The New York Times. Ali, a businessman from Tehran, said in a text message that he was sitting in his office with many employees when they heard two explosions along with fighter jets streaking over the sky. Employees ran screaming out of the building, he said. He, like several other residents who spoke to The Times, asked not to be identified by his full name because he feared for his safety. From the leafy, upscale district of Mirdamad, resident Hamidreza Zand described seeing at least 10 fighter jets flying overhead as locals ran into the streets and some drivers abandoned cars on streets choked with traffic. With ambulance sirens wailing in the background, other residents scrambled to pick their children up from school. “I rushed to school to get my daughter from middle school. The girls were hiding under the stairs and crying,” said Ali Zeinalipoor, whom a Times reporter reached on the Clubhouse social media app. “The principal did not know what had happened — everyone was so scared.” From the roof of her apartment in Tehran’s northern Velenjak district, Golshan Fathi described seeing a second round of fighter jets. “People are standing on the roof looking at the sky, pointing down. You can hear women screaming. Some of my neighbors are running to their cars,” she said. “It feels like we are in a movie.” In the Pasdaran area, where a large compound belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards forces is, residents heard multiple explosions that shook their windows. “My children are crying and scared, we are huddling in the bathroom, we don’t know what to do. This is terrifying,” Esfandiar, an engineer living in the area, wrote in a text message. As reports of explosions hitting other cities across Iran began to emerge on local media, telecommunications began to falter. A resident named Mahsa said she was fleeing Pasdaran without being able to contact her loved ones to tell them where she was going. When Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran last June, it targeted mostly military and nuclear sites and strikes in Tehran and assassinated its top military chain of command. The strikes on Saturday appeared far broader, including political targets like the intelligence ministry, the judiciary and the Pasteur gated compound where the president and supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, generally reside, according to residents in the area and local news outlets. The attacks come at a fragile moment for Iran, whose government launched a brutal crackdown last month to stamp out nationwide protests demanding an end to Iran’s clerical rule. Not all Iranians were angry as they watched the plumes of smoke rising from the blasts, said Arian, a resident of the Ekteban township west of the capital, who said some of his relatives were cheering the strikes. He said he could hear voices outside his building chanting, “Long live the shah,” a reference to Iran’s monarch, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power. As warplanes launched strikes across the country, President Trump released a video statement announcing to Iranians that “the hour of your freedom is at hand,” and urging them to rise up gainst the government once the bombing stops. Some Iranians ridiculed that call. “The only thing on our mind right now is to get to safety,” Laleh, a lawyer and mother of two, said in a phone interview. “Nobody is thinking of protesting right now.” The Israeli military said the joint U.S.-Israeli attack had struck “dozens of military targets” in Iran so far. The strikes aimed to “thoroughly degrade the Iranian terrorist regime,” the military statement said. Sirens blared in parts of Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf that is home to the headquarters of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the Fifth Fleet. Mobile phone alerts from Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior urged citizens and residents to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.” So far, few members of Congress have awoken to news of the strikes on Iran but Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Democrat and former Marine who served in Iraq, said on social media early Saturday that the United States “can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops to die.” He added that Americans should not have to “pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people.” While President Trump recited a litany of Iranian attacks on American interests back to the hostage crisis during the Carter administration, he made little effort to argue that any immediate threat had prompted the latest U.S. and Israeli strikes. He repeated the allegation he made in the State of the Union address that Iran was working on missiles that could soon reach the United States. But the Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded in 2025 that no decision had been made by the Iranian government to pursue an intercontinental ballistic missile. While Trump repeated that Iran could never be permitted to obtain nuclear weapons, he did not attempt to make the case that Iran was closer to producing one. President Trump said early Saturday that the United States had launched a “massive and ongoing” military campaign against Iran in an effort to crush its military, eliminate its nuclear program and bring about a change in government. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” he said in an eight-minute video posted on Truth Social at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time. “Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.” Mr. Trump, standing behind a lectern and wearing a white USA hat, argued the Iranian regime has posed a threat to the national security of the United States for 47 years, ever since a revolution in Iran led to the installation of a theocratic government there. He ticked through a list of Iranian-led attacks that targeted Americans over the last four decades, starting with the hostage crisis that began in 1979, and called for the Iranian people to “take over your government” after the strikes end. “For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it,” he said in a message directed to the Iranian people. “No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.” The president said the U.S. military campaign was aimed at Iran’s missiles, its navy and its proxy groups in the region — and warned that there could be U.S. casualties. “My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region,” Mr. Trump said. “Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.” The president implored members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Iranian armed forces and the police to “lay down your weapons” and said they would have “total immunity” if they did. If not, he said they would “face certain death.” The attack, which was conducted with Israel, marks the second U.S. assault on Iran in less than a year. Last June, the United States bombed three nuclear sites in the country. Saturday’s strikes also come roughly two months after the United States launched a military operation in Venezuela which captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro. In both cases, Mr. Trump resorted to military action after concluding that diplomatic negotiations would not yield the outcome he was seeking. Mr. Trump had deputized Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program. In 2018, Mr. Trump pulled out of the last nuclear agreement with Iran, struck during the Obama administration, which he called “the worst deal in history.” For these talks, Mr. Trump set hard-line conditions, including that Iran stop all enrichment of uranium and disavow its proxy groups in the Middle East. Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner met with Iranian officials on Thursday in Geneva for the third round of talks since January. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who had been mediating the talks, said on Friday that a peace deal was “within our reach.” Mr. Trump took a different view. He said on Friday morning that he was “not happy” with the talks, but that he had not made a decision about whether to launch military action. He said that he would “love not to use force” but that “sometimes you have to.” Mr. Trump had been for weeks weighing strikes on a range of targets in Iran, and the United States had gathered a massive force in the Middle East. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Friday issued a written directive to its workers that if they wanted to leave the country, they “should do so TODAY.” Mr. Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., this weekend. He arrived there late Friday night after delivering a speech in Corpus Christi, Texas, and hours later released his video statement announcing the beginning of hostilities with Iran.
