Photo: consequences of the attack on Tehran / AP Photo
Israel and the United States launched a joint strike on Iranian territory on the morning of February 28. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Operation Roar of the Lion. According to media reports, the strikes could continue for up to four days. Their main target now, according to the IDF, is military installations in western Iran.
Updated at 18:17 The Russian Telegram channel Mash published a video of a fire that broke out after an Iranian missile fell near the five-star Fairmont The Palm hotel, located on the artificial island of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The hotel is popular among Russian tourists.
Updated at 5:28 p.m. The IDF announced that it had completed a large-scale attack on Iranian air defense systems. One of the targets was the improved SA-65 system, located in the western city of Kermanshah. “ Throughout the war, the IDF significantly damaged the Iranian regime's defenses. These strikes were carried out with the aim of establishing and expanding the freedom of action of the Israeli Air Force in Iranian airspace, weakening the capabilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and preventing threats against the State of Israel ,” the report said.
Updated 16:57. Saudi Arabia condemned Iran's strikes on the territories of the Persian Gulf countries, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The country declared its “full solidarity and unwavering support to brotherly countries” and its readiness to “provide them with all our capabilities to support” any response. American diplomat Ellie Kohanim writes that this essentially signals Saudi Arabia's readiness to join the United States in an operation against Iran.
Updated 16:26. Videos of alleged Iranian strikes on American targets in the region using Shahed-type drones have also appeared on social networks. One such video reportedly shows a strike on a US-controlled naval base in Bahrain. The target was probably a radar system.
Updated 16:23. Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, held a meeting with members of the Russian Security Council. As presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said , they also “discussed the situation around Iran,” however, the Kremlin did not provide specific details.
Updated 16:15. The New York Times publishes a map of attacks on Iranian territory - explosions were recorded in the capital Tehran, in the west and in the south of the country.
Updated 15:55. Tehran attacked military facilities in Kuwait, where a contingent from Italy is stationed, AFP reported . As the agency writes, citing the head of the country's Foreign Ministry, there were 300 Italian troops at the base at the time of the strike. No casualties were reported.
Updated 15:50. The world's largest airport in terms of passenger traffic, Dubai International Airport, has suspended arrivals and departures of flights amid Iran's strikes. Until further notice, the second airport in Al Maktoum does not accept or depart flights.
Updated 15:34. Israeli officials believe the first strikes this morning likely killed the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Mohammed Pakpour, as well as Iran's defense minister and intelligence chief. Pakpour's predecessor in the post, Hossein Salami, was killed in an Israeli strike last June.
The Times of Israel writes about this with reference to sources. There is no other confirmation of this information.
The Syrian agency SANA, meanwhile, writes that four people were killed as a result of an Iranian missile hitting a building in the city of Suwayda in the south of the country.
Updated 15:14. Iran's Fars publishes a video of the aftermath of an attack allegedly on an elementary school in the southern city of Minab. The number of people killed during the attack reached 40 people, the newspaper writes.
As the British newspaper The Guardian notes , Minab is also home to an IRGC base.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, meanwhile, issued a statement. He said Tehran would use all available means within the right of self-defense to defend against Israeli and American attacks.
It is also reported that Araqchi held telephone conversations with the foreign ministers of other countries in the region - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq. He warned them of possible consequences if they made their territories available for attacks on Iran.
Updated 15:07. France demanded an urgent convening of the UN Security Council. This was announced by the country's President Emmanuel Macron.
Updated 14:59. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have said they will resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. The Times of Israel writes about this with reference to representatives of the group.
This decision, they say, was made in response to Israeli and US strikes on Iranian territory. Strikes could resume as early as the evening of February 28.
Updated 14:45. A satellite image of the residence of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is published by The New York Times. Media previously reported that Khamenei's office and residence were among the targets of the strikes.
Updated 14:41. Israel releases first footage of strikes on Iran. It is alleged that the military struck “hundreds of Iranian military targets,” including missile systems in the west of the country.
Updated 14:32. Iranian authorities report that the death toll after the attack on the city of Minab has risen to 24 people. Reuters writes about this with reference to the local agency Tasnim. There is no independent confirmation of this information.
Updated 14:08. The Russian Embassy in Israel recommended that citizens leave the country if possible “for the period until the situation normalizes”:
“We recommend that those who have such an opportunity leave Israel until the situation normalizes. According to information received from the Israeli side, the Begin (Taba) border crossing on the border with Egypt operates around the clock (Russian citizens with valid documents do not need a visa to visit Egypt),” the post says.
The Russian Embassy in Iran also recommends that citizens leave the country if possible and refrain from traveling to Iran. The embassy statement said that the optimal routes for leaving Iran are across the land border to Azerbaijan.
An official statement is also published by the Russian Foreign Ministry. It calls the attack by Israel and the United States “a pre-planned and unprovoked act of armed aggression.”
Updated 14:02. According to The Times of Israel, about 35 ballistic missiles were launched from Iran into Israel in the morning. Some of them were intercepted by air defense forces; in some cases, shrapnel damaged residential buildings. One casualty was reported.
Updated 13:50. The Iranian state agency IRNA claims that in the city of Minab in the south of the country, a primary school came under attack. Authorities say five children died.
Updated 13:32. Reuters correspondent Phil Stewart, citing a source in Iran, writes that several high-ranking officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian politicians were killed during attacks on the country. There is no official confirmation of this information.
Updated 13:12. According to Reuters, airstrikes also affected Iraq, namely the city of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad. At least two militants from the Hashd al-Shaabi group were killed and three more were wounded.
Jordanian authorities also reported that they shot down two ballistic missiles over the country's territory. To whom they belong, however, is unclear. One person was killed in a strike on Abu Dhabi, the UAE Ministry of Defense said .
The main thing is by 1 pm Moscow time.
Israel, together with the United States, is carrying out a “massive” series of airstrikes. The IDF says the target was military installations in western Iran.
The IDF announced the call up of about 70 thousand reservists.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the main goal of Operation Roar of the Lion is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Explosions were reported in other Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. Iran has confirmed that it has carried out a series of attacks on US military bases in the region.
Updated 12:47. Explosions were also recorded in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), writes Al Jazeera.
Iran, meanwhile, confirmed that it had carried out a series of attacks on American military bases in the Persian Gulf countries. The Iranian publication Fars writes that the missile attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The targets were Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, Al Salem in Kuwait, Al Dhafra in the UAE and a US base in Bahrain - apparently the US Fifth Fleet Maintenance Center.
Updated 12:37. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was conducting a "massive" series of airstrikes against Iranian military targets in western Iran. The military said in a Twitter post that Operation Roar of the Lion is intended to "weaken the Iranian terrorist regime and eliminate existential threats to Israel in the long term."
Updated 12:05. Al Jazeera reported that missiles were also fired towards Qatar and Bahrain . An Iranian missile was intercepted by air defense systems over Qatar, and explosions are reported from Bahrain.
Bahrain News Agency writes that the US Fifth Fleet Service Center came under rocket fire. It is located in Manama, the capital of the country. Bahrain, an island state in the Persian Gulf, is also home to the headquarters of the US Navy Central Command, the NYT newspaper notes . The American base Al Udeid is located in Qatar.
Reuters, citing eyewitnesses, also writes that the explosion occurred in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. Presumably, this was the work of air defense.
Updated 11:50. The Pentagon on Twitter calls the operation against Iran “Epic Fury.”
Reuters sources, meanwhile, confirm that the operation against Iran was planned to last many days. Israeli media wrote about this earlier.
Updated 11:33. The Israeli army reported more launches towards Israel.
In Iran, meanwhile, interruptions in the Internet and mobile communications are reported. According to the NetBlocks project, the country's network connectivity is 4% of normal levels amid attacks from Israel and the United States.
Updated 11:29. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made an address. He called the joint operation with the United States “Roar of the Lion”:
“Brothers and sisters, citizens of Israel, just an hour ago, Israel and the United States launched an operation to eliminate the existential threat from the terrorist regime in Iran.
I thank our great friend, President Donald Trump, for his historic leadership.
For 47 years, the Ayatollah regime has been shouting “Death to Israel,” “Death to America.” He shed our blood, killed many Americans and massacred his own people.
This murderous terrorist regime should not arm itself with nuclear weapons, which would allow it to threaten all of humanity. Our joint actions will create the conditions so that the courageous Iranian people can take their destiny into their own hands.”
Updated 11:19. The IDF reported that the military recorded missile launches from Iran towards Israel. The media write about an air raid alert in the north of the country. Iran's NourNews agency claims that "dozens of missiles" were launched.
Updated 11:13. Meanwhile, Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Iranian Shah, overthrown during the Islamic Revolution, addressed the people of Iran. In a post on Twitter, he thanked Trump for the “humanitarian intervention”:
“But despite this help, the final victory will still be ours. It is we, the Iranian people, who will finish this final battle. The time to return to the streets is approaching.
Now that the Islamic Republic is collapsing, my message to the country's military, law enforcement and security forces is clear: you are sworn to protect Iran and the Iranian people, not the Islamic Republic and its leaders. Your duty is to protect the people, not the regime that is holding our homeland hostage through repression and crime,” he wrote.
Updated 11:04. The Al Jazeera television channel, citing sources, writes that the purpose of the joint attack by Israel and the United States is to “decapitate” the Iranian regime. The Times of Israel clarifies that one of the targets, in particular, could be the presidential complex.
Updated 10:39. US President Donald Trump confirmed US participation in strikes against Iran. This comes from a video he posted on Truth Social. In it, he said that the US military had begun “full-scale military operations” in Iran:
“Our goal is to protect the American people by eliminating the immediate threats from the Iranian regime, a brutal group of very terrible people. His activities directly threaten the United States, our troops, our bases abroad and our allies around the world,” Trump said (quoted by NYT ).
Trump in his address called on Iranian security forces to lay down their arms and also addressed directly the people of Iran. He called on him to take control of the country's government after the end of the operation:
“This is probably your only chance for many generations. For many years you asked for help from America, but never received it. No president has ever been willing to do what I'm willing to do today."
As the NYT writes , citing an unnamed American official, the United States is launching “dozens of strikes” from aircraft stationed at bases throughout the Middle East, as well as “from one or more” aircraft carriers.
Reuters, citing an Iranian official, meanwhile reports that Tehran is preparing a retaliatory strike. It will be “devastating.”
Updated 10:27. Channel 12 writes that this operation is the beginning of the first stage of Israeli strikes against Iran, which could last up to four days. NYT, citing American officials, notes that new attacks by Israel and the United States could become “much larger-scale” than the strikes that were carried out on the country as part of a joint operation last summer.
Updated 9:56. The Iranian newspaper Shargh writes that the explosions occurred in the north and east of the Iranian capital. The New York Times notes that the area where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei usually lives was also under attack. This is confirmed by the Associated Press: according to its data, one of the targets of the Israeli strike was the office of Ali Khamenei. Reuters writes that the Supreme Leader of Iran was not in Tehran at the time of the attacks, he was transferred to a safe place.
Agency sources also confirm that the Israeli strike was coordinated with the United States. According to one of the Israeli Defense Ministry officials, the operation was planned for several months in coordination with Washington, and its start date was determined several months ago.
The Iranian Mehr agency also reports that the intelligence building and the presidential complex, as well as Tehran airport, were under attack. The Iranian publication Fars writes about attacks on other Iranian cities - Esfahan, Qom, Karaj and Kermanshah.
Updated 9:45. Israeli Channel 12, citing sources , calls this strike a joint operation between Israel and the United States.
Israel launched an attack on Iranian territory on the morning of February 28, said the country's Defense Minister Israel Katz. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called the strike "preemptive." The head of the military department also called the strike “preemptive.” Its mission, according to Katz, is “to eliminate threats against the State of Israel.”
A state of emergency has been declared in the country, as a retaliatory strike against Israel is possible in the near future. According to The Times of Israel, sirens are heard throughout the country.
The IDF report also spoke of a possible retaliatory strike. Local media write that Israel has closed its airspace.
Meanwhile, explosions are reported from Tehran. Photos and videos are published on social networks, presumably of the consequences of the strikes, but their scale is unclear.
The strikes on Iranian soil come amid tensions that have been rising during negotiations over Iran's nuclear program over the past couple of weeks. On Thursday, February 26, the second round of negotiations between the US and Iranian delegations took place in Geneva.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported yesterday, citing sources, that the American delegation put forward quite stringent demands during the last round of negotiations. US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner made it clear that Tehran must destroy three of its nuclear facilities - in Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan - and transfer all remaining enriched uranium to the United States. US officials also insist that any nuclear agreement must be open-ended. Tehran, meanwhile, rejects the idea of transferring its reserves abroad.
On Friday, February 27, US President Donald Trump also said that he has a “very difficult” decision to make regarding Iran:
“We need to get a meaningful [nuclear] deal. I would prefer to do this peacefully. But these are very complex people,” CNN quoted him as saying.
Amid tensions in the region, the United States has assembled its largest force in the Middle East since 2003, including at least two aircraft carriers, as well as fighter and tanker aircraft.
