By Thomas Wong
The United States military launched targeted strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran on Saturday, following the escalation of tensions between the two powers and an apparent breakdown in diplomatic negotiations.
President Donald Trump posted an eight-minute video to Truth Social announcing the “massive and ongoing” attacks, identified as Operation Epic Fury, which are targeting Iran’s military and its nuclear program, as well as to facilitate a change in its 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,” the president declared in the video posted Saturday at 2:30 a.m. EST. “Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.”
“We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” Trump vowed. “We are going to annihilate their navy, we are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and the world.”
Iran, he claimed, “attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and continue developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach our American homeland.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a video statement that his country launched a “joint operation” with the U.S. against the “existential threat” posed by Iran. The operation would, he said, “create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands.”
“This murderous terrorist regime must not be allowed to arm itself with nuclear weapons that would enable it to threaten all of humanity,” he stated.
The U.S. ally’s military subsequently announced it “identified missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.” U.S. Embassy staff in Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were reportedly instructed to shelter in place. Non-emergency personnel at the U.S. embassy in Israel were authorized Friday to immediately depart the country due to “safety risks.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, hours before the attack, also announced the U.S. designation of Iran as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention.”
The assault was supported by an armada of American naval and air assets recently amassed within striking distance of their targets. The Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group sailed into the Mediterranean Sea, complementing that of carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. Fourteen destroyers, in addition to dozens of support vessels, fighter jets, unmanned drones, helicopters, and defense systems, further manifested Trump’s Jan. 13 promise on Truth Social to “Iranian Patriots” that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Department Of War Reveals Game Plan For Massive Armada It’s Creating)
Trump previously hinted at consequences for Iran if the weeks of negotiations in Switzerland — conducted as recent as Thursday — failed to make meaningful progress, remarking at the Feb. 19 convening of the Board of Peace in Washington, “It’s proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. Otherwise bad things happen.”
“We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or the other,” Trump said Feb. 18 to a room full of the nation’s governors.
Trump claimed Feb. 20 that 32,000 Iranians had been killed after the regime cracked down on weeks of widespread protests and unrest over the deteriorating national economy. At one point, Trump has claimed, Iran was set to execute over 800 detained dissidents until the president publicly weighed in on their behalf. Iran’s top prosecutor on Jan. 23, however, called Trump’s claim “completely false.”
While Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, admitted Feb. 14 that thousands of Iranians had been killed during chaos, he blamed Trump for having “openly encouraged” the dissidents’ uprising by offering “military support.” He also called Trump a “criminal” responsible “both for the casualties and the damage,” Reuters reported.
The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 17, 2026
Khamenei was reportedly not in Tehran when the strikes were launched.
The strike follows U.S. military action in June 2025 targeting Iran’s weaponized uranium enrichment capabilities. Operation Midnight Hammer involved seven B-2 stealth bombers flying 37 hours across the world armed with 14 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators bunker-busting munitions.
Trump has ordered seven military strikes in other nations since returning to the White House in January 2025.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump declared Tuesday night during his State of the Union address. “For decades, it has been the policy of the United States never to allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Many decades. Since they seized control of that proud nation 47 years ago, the regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate. They’ve killed and maimed thousands of American service members and hundreds of thousands and even millions of people.”
President Trump addressed negotiations with Iran in his State of the Union address: “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy, but one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror … to have a nuclear weapon.” pic.twitter.com/E4cdCnwvvv
— ABC News (@ABC) February 25, 2026
“They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’ My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” the president vowed at the time. “But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
