American forces have begun “major combat operations” in Iran, President Donald Trump said in a video message, as Israeli and U.S. forces launched strikes on the Middle Eastern nation early Saturday.
Iran soon began retaliating against multiple U.S. military facilities across the Middle East, a U.S. official told NBC News.
The U.S. and Israeli attacks come after Trump oversaw a massive military build up in the region while holding talks with Tehran aimed at agreeing a new deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.
“We sought repeatedly to make a deal,” Trump said in the statement released on Truth Social. “We tried.”
The constant sound of explosions was being heard in Tehran, according to an NBC News producer on the ground. Earlier, Iran announced it was closing its airspace, Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported, and news agency video showed smoke rising above the buildings.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” Trump said in an eight-minute video message shared on Truth Social.
"Bombs will be dropping everywhere," he added, addressing Iranians directly. "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take."
Two U.S. officials told NBC News that the U.S. was launching the military operation from air and sea. One of the officials said a large array of fighter jets was involved in the operation. The other official said the U.S. is targeting military and security targets.
The administration was taking "every possible step" to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel, Trump added, but he warned that the lives of “courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties."
"That often happens in war," he added.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet’s service center in Bahrain was subject to a missile attack Saturday, according to Bahraini State News Agency BNA.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem has advised all government employees and their families to shelter in place until further notices.
Iran vowed before the strikes that it would retaliate against any attack, threatening to target Israel as well as American bases across the region.
A spokesperson for Israel’s defense minister earlier said that Israel had "launched a preemptive strike" against Iran. The military later announced it had “identified missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that his country and the U.S. had “embarked on an operation to remove the existential threat,” referring to Iran, and and thanked Trump for his “historic leadership.”
Other Middle Eastern nations have warned any attack could spiral into another major conflict for a region still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Trump raised the prospect of an attack on Iran after authorities cracked down on huge nationwide demonstrations, which erupted in December and January over the country’s ailing economy but morphed into demands for the overthrow of the clerical regime.
The regime ended up crushing the protests, killing thousands and arresting tens of thousands more in the weeks afterwards.
Trump then threatened a military attack if a deal could not be reached with Tehran over its nuclear program — which the president had said the U.S. “obliterated” with strikes in June. A later U.S. assessment found these only destroyed one of three sites targeted.
More recently, the administration said Iran was trying to rebuild its nuclear program, and that it could have enough fissile material for an atomic bomb within “a week” and that its ballistic missiles could “soon” be able to strike the U.S.
There is no publicly available evidence that Iran has made major progress in reviving its damaged nuclear program, including whether it has resumed significant uranium enrichment. The Trump administration has not specifically accused Iran of renewing uranium enrichment work.
Iran, which has always insisted that it has not pursued nuclear weapons, resists demands that it halt uranium enrichment or expand talks to include its ballistic missile program and support for proxy forces across the Middle East.
At the same time as holding talks with Iran, the U.S. amassed forces and built up its air defenses at bases across the region.
Trump sent the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, to join another at the head of what he dubbed an “armada.”
Iran has already signed a nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was seen by supporters as a landmark agreement that provided transparency and confidence internationally that Tehran was not building nuclear weapons.
Trump and other critics saw the deal as weak, however, and claimed it would only delay Iran from obtaining a bomb. In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the agreement.
