U.S. launches 'major combat operations' in Iran, Trump says

President Donald Trump announced the largest military intervention of his two terms in the Oval Office, saying the United States is launching sweeping attacks on the Iranian military and calling on the Iranian people to rise up and seize control of their government.

The U.S. military has launched “major combat operations” in Iran, Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social early Saturday, with the goal of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and protecting American personnel and interests abroad and at home.

“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump declared from behind a podium dressed in a navy suit and wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with “USA” on it.

The strikes have killed at least five students at a girls’ school in southern Iran, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. A Gulf regional leader told MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” that one person was killed by debris from missiles fired at the UAE.

Israel announced it was also participating in the military offensive, and The Associated Press reported that Israel had launched a daylight attack on Tehran, Iran’s capital, on Saturday. The Israel Defense Forces posted on X that Iran had launched missiles toward Israel, underscoring the possibilities of wider war in a Middle East already riven with tensions and conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the joint attack with the U.S. was aimed at ending “the threat of the Iranian ayatollah’s regime.”

Trump acknowledged there may be American casualties as a result of the U.S. military intervention labeled “Operation Epic Fury,” but said the mission was necessary to protect America and its allies in the future.

Trump acknowledged there may be American casualties as a result of the U.S. military intervention labeled “Operation Epic Fury,” but said the mission was necessary to protect America and its allies in the future.

“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war,” Trump stated. “We’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future and it is a noble mission.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, denounced the attack, saying, “Netanyahu and Trump’s war on Iran is wholly unprovoked, illegal, and illegitimate. Trump has turned ‘America First’ into ‘Israel First’—which always means ‘America Last’.”

Araghchi told NBC News that Iran’s supreme leader and president are alive “as far as I know.” Several Iranian commanders may have been killed, but “this is not a big problem,” he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president “monitored the situation overnight” at Mar-a-Lago and had spoken with Netanyahu. “The President and his national security team will continue to closely monitor the situation throughout the day,” she said in a statement.

In an early morning interview with The Washington Post after announcing the strikes, Trump said he wanted “freedom” for the Iranian people.

This is the eighth military intervention of Trump’s second term in office and runs counter to his campaign promise to end costly foreign wars. The president set broad goals in his video address and called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Iranian military forces to lay down their arms, making clear this was not a limited U.S. attack. Indeed, he called it “massive” in the video statement.

“We will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon…this regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces,” Trump said.

The airstrikes began at the start of Iran’s workweek. The country’s foreign ministry claimed the U.S. and Israel had targeted “defensive and civilian facilities” and that the offensive occurred while Iran was “engaged in a diplomatic process” with the United States.

Strikes were reported in Dubai and Kuwait. Officials from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said separately that missiles were intercepted in their airspace.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen announced that they would resume strikes on shipping in the Red Sea, which drove up shipping prices in the past.

The United Nations Security Council will meet at 4 p.m. ET to discuss the developing situation in Iran and the Middle East, according to an advisory.

Trump pointed to the on-again-off-again nature of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear operations, and said the government had “rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions.” He stated the country had attempted to rebuild its nuclear industry following U.S. attacks on its nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer.

“We can’t take it anymore,” Trump said, warning that Iran was continuing to build long-range missiles that could not only threaten U.S. allies in Europe but “could soon reach” U.S. shores.

The attack caught diplomats who had been involved in negotiations over the past several weeks off guard.

“I am dismayed,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi said Saturday, after just a day earlier expressing optimism that the talks he had mediated between the U.S. and Iran had made significant progress. “Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war.”

Trump called on the Iranian people to take action, describing the U.S. military offensive as “their moment for action” and “probably your only chance to act for generations.” The operation comes in the wake of a brutal crackdown by the Iranian regime on civilians after nationwide protests against the government.