5th LD Writethru: U.S., Israel strike Iran, trigger retaliations

The United States and Israel on Saturday launched "major combat operations" against Iran, claiming that the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed.



Iran retaliated with a series of counterattacks against Israel and U.S. targets across the region, with explosions reported in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia, among other countries.



U.S. President Donald Trump said the objective "is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats" from Iran, and the Israeli Defense Ministry said the country launched a "preemptive" strike against Iran "to remove threats to Israel."



The Israeli military said in a statement that some 200 fighter jets completed an "extensive attack" against the missile array and the defense systems in western and central Iran, marking the largest military flyover in the history of the Israeli Air Force.



On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a live broadcast statement that the ongoing combat operations against Iran "will continue as long as necessary to ensure that Iran no longer poses a threat."



Israel "will strike thousands of targets in the coming days," he said in the statement, noting that the Israeli army is prepared for any scenario of response from "Iranian proxies" in the region.



Netanyahu also said that there are "increasing signs" that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is "gone," adding that the strikes have destroyed Khamenei's compound and killed commanders of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.



In Tehran, missiles hit areas near the offices of both Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said almost all Iranian officials, except one or two commanders, are "safe and sound and alive."



At least 24 of Iran's 31 provinces were affected by U.S. and Israeli strikes, the Iranian Red Crescent Society reported, adding that at least 201 people were killed and 747 injured in the joint attacks on Iran.



The airstrikes struck a girls' school in southern Iran, and up to 160 people could have been killed there.



Iran's president condemned the incident as "inhumane."



Another attack killed at least 15 people in a sports hall in Iran's southern Fars provinced.