President Donald Trump issued an uncompromising message to Iran on Friday, calling its leaders “deranged scumbags,” celebrating their deaths as a personal honor, and promising dramatically intensified military strikes in the days ahead. The words were accompanied by massive military action, with US and Israeli warplanes launching successive bombing raids over Tehran while Iranian forces struck back with missiles and drones targeting nations across the Gulf. The war that began with Israel’s killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has grown into a conflict of staggering regional proportions.
US and Israeli forces have combined to strike over 15,000 targets since the war began, with Israel alone conducting more than 200 strikes in the most recent 24-hour period. Trump announced late Friday that US Central Command had wiped out every military facility on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export terminal, in what he called one of the most powerful bombing raids in Middle Eastern history. He simultaneously threatened to destroy the island’s oil infrastructure if Iran continued to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran’s residents have endured near-continuous bombing since the war began, describing a city transformed by explosions, power cuts, rubble, and fear. A 66-year-old retired professor said she was begging the world to intervene, describing sick family members unable to leave and fuel too scarce to enable flight. A 42-year-old shopkeeper described taping her windows with newspaper, sleeping barely at all, and counting six explosions in the span of a single hour. Iranian authorities have confirmed over 1,300 deaths in the country since fighting began.
Iran has struck back across the region, targeting critical infrastructure in Gulf states in what appears to be a deliberate campaign to spread the economic pain of the war. Saudi Arabia shot down nearly 50 Iranian drones. Qatar intercepted a missile over Doha and issued partial evacuation orders. Two people died in Oman when drones struck an industrial zone. Debris from intercepted projectiles damaged a building in Dubai’s International Financial Centre. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared the campaign part of the annual al-Quds Day observance.
Allied nations have suffered their own losses. Six American service members died in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq, bringing the US total to 13 killed and eight severely injured. France lost a soldier to a pro-Iranian militia drone in Iraq. Lebanon, caught between Israeli strikes and Hezbollah activity, has seen over 600 killed and 800,000 displaced. Hezbollah wounded close to 60 people in rocket attacks on northern Israel. European governments quietly opened negotiations with Tehran, seeking at minimum guaranteed safe passage for their ships in the increasingly hostile Strait of Hormuz.