U.S. and Israel Attack Iran: Live Updates |
The U.S. and Israel conducted major airstrikes on multiple cities in Iran on Saturday, following a major buildup of U.S. forces in the region and an apparent breakdown in negotiations with Iran’s regime over its nuclear program. President Donald Trump said in a recorded video that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. and that he had ordered a “massive and ongoing” combat operation in the country to destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, that the U.S. was seeking regime change, and he called on the Iranian people to rise up and “take over your government.” Here’s the latest.
This is not like the strikes last year
During last year’s 12-Day War between Israel and Iran, long-range U.S. bombers conducted a single series of strikes against Iranian nuclear targets and that was it. This time, the U.S. and Israel are apparently conducting a widespread campaign targeting numerous cities — and it’s not clear when it will end.
In his recorded statement, Trump said that:
Our objective is to the defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. …The United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world.
Our objective is to the defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. …
The United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world.
He also called on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces to stand down. “You will be treated fairly with total immunity or you will face certain death,” Trump said.
And he made it clear that the U.S. was also seeking regime change, though he appeared to expect Iranians to do the work on the ground. Telling the Iranian people that their freedom was at hand, Trump said they should shelter for now, because bombs would be dropping “everwhere” — but afterwards, they should rise up “take over your government.” He continued:
This will be probably your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. 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.
This will be probably your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. 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.
Here is Trump’s video announcing the attack
Trump posted an eight-minute video on Truth Social at 2:30 a.m., roughly an hour after the first strikes were reported:
President Donald J. Trump on the United States military combat operations in Iran: pic.twitter.com/LimJmpLkgZ— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 28, 2026
President Donald J. Trump on the United States military combat operations in Iran: pic.twitter.com/LimJmpLkgZ
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