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The Pentagon updated its official casualty database to list 19 total U.S. military deaths related to the war with Iran after quietly adding a new fatality.

The change occurred following the death of a female Army officer who suffered a fatal medical emergency Friday while traveling to the Middle East, as reported by The Washington Post.

A U.S. defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity told the outlet that the casualty was logged into the database sometime after Monday afternoon. The death was reported earlier by Task & Purpose. Her identity has not been released.

The addition brings the total number of documented fatalities in the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, to 19, up from 18 recorded earlier in the week. The database also lists more than 820 service members wounded in action.

However, current and former officials indicate the public count remains incomplete. Five U.S. officials told the publication last week that at least 22 service members have died in the region since military action began on February 28, while a sixth official placed the figure at 23.

Some of those unrecorded deaths involve military personnel deployed to the region during active hostilities, even if not directly killed in combat.

In response to reports regarding the accounting discrepancies, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected claims of intentional omissions.

“Even if we wanted to attempt to hide a combat death, we never would and we never could,” Hegseth said.

The accounting methods used by the Defense Department have drawn scrutiny throughout the conflict. Earlier this year, four service members killed in action were temporarily left off the official count.

Discrepancies in casualty counts carry logistical consequences beyond public record-keeping. The military conducts a formal “line of duty” inquiry for every death to determine whether it occurred during active duty, a designation that directly dictates the financial survivor benefits allocated to military families.

Within the DCAS system, 14 of the listed deaths are categorized under Operation Epic Fury, the official administration title for the military campaign against Iran.

An additional five deaths — including the female officer added this week — are listed under a separate “Overseas Operations” category, which includes casualties that occurred after a brief July ceasefire collapsed.

In addition, the Pentagon issued press releases earlier in the war acknowledging the deaths of two service members in the Middle East at bases targeted by Iranian strikes, though neither name appears in the DCAS registry.

The conflict, now in its seventh month, continues to face widespread skepticism among the public and lawmakers.

“The Washington war machine is trying to turn Iran into another Iraq,” Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, said in March. “Our troops are not to be used for another endless war.”

A recent Fox News poll found 60 percent of voters believed the military action in Iran was a wrong decision, while 71 percent indicated they did not believe the administration had a clear plan to end the hostilities.

In July, President Donald Trump attended a dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for four service members killed during operations tied to the war.

The soldiers honored included Army 1st Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii, Army Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas, Army Sergeant Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of New York, and Army Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of North Carolina.

Feehan, Gonzales and Rampersad died following an attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, while Swinton was killed during a controlled detonation of a downed drone in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters on his way to the ceremony, Trump called the event “one of the hardest things to do as a president.”

“There’s no games, there’s no nothing — that’s their child,” Trump said. “And all you can do is throw out your heart.”

Family members say sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have faced food shortages, long stretches at sea and deteriorating mental health

The military is reportedly preparing to send a new aircraft carrier to the Middle East to replace the issue-plagued USS Abraham Lincoln, which has carried out a lengthy and high-stakes deployment as part of the Iran war.

The USS George Washington will take the Lincoln’s place, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal. The switch is reportedly part of a previously planned rotation.

The Navy has said it is not publicly discussing plans for the carriers because of operational security concerns.

The swap comes after sailors and their families have alleged issues on the Lincoln including food shortages, months at sea without interruption and deteriorating mental health.

The George Washington and an accompanying carrier strike group were in the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia on Thursday, USNI News reports.

The Lincoln set sail in November and has gone a record-setting 200 days without making a port call, according to Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Aircraft carrier crews typically visit ports roughly once every one or two months.

“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter on Wednesday to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao.

Multiple sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have attempted to go overboard, their families told MilitaryTimes.

Secretary Hegseth said Thursday conditions on the ship had been “completely misrepresented.”

"We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” he told reporters during a trip to Panama. “Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls - it's incredible.”

Family members reportedly confronted Secretary Cao earlier this month at a contentious meeting in San Diego about conditions on the carrier.

The military said Wednesday it had “not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship.”

“Navy leadership is listening to our families, supporting our service members, and ensuring the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group has the resources needed to safely and successfully accomplish its mission,” a Navy official told USNI News on Wednesday.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana has said he will seek a report from the Pentagon about conditions on the ship and what is being done to address them.

“At the end of the day, we know that those who are serving have to have comfort knowing that they’re getting properly taken care of,” he told CNN.

In addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS George H.W. Bush is deployed in the region as part of the Iran conflict.

Iran has said it struck two tankers trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz under the escort of the US military as Donald Trump gathered his cabinet to discuss the stalling war and rising prices as midterm elections in the US loom.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday that the “non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions”. The military body said the ships had tried to pass through the strait via an “undeclared route” and under US aerial escort.

Iran and the US have said ships should pass through the strait via two competing routes, with Iran bombing ships that take the southern route, close to the coast of Oman, and the US bombing ships that violate its blockade of Iranian ships and ports.

The strait has been almost completely closed to traffic since Iran and the US returned to fighting two weeks ago, sending energy prices soaring. On Thursday, the price of crude oil pushed past $90 a barrel when the US struck Iran in retaliation for its targeting of US bases in Jordan.

Fighting continued on Friday, with the Kuwaiti defence ministry reporting that it had shot down Iranian drones targeting “vital and military facilities” without any casualties.

In Lebanon, the Israeli military carried out a huge detonation overnight near the ancient Beaufort Castle. It said it was targeting Hezbollah tunnels and infrastructure. The explosion was heard across south Lebanon and covered nearby towns in ash, while photos showed the affected area levelled by the force of the blast.

Lebanese officials accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by carrying out the detonation. The Israeli military said it was ensuring the security of its northern residents.

Trump has tried to open the strait of Hormuz by force, but increasingly intense US strikes on Iran have yielded few results. The price of gas and groceries remain high in the US as a result of the energy disruption, complicating Republicans’ chances at the ballot box in November’s midterm elections.

On Friday, Trump brought his cabinet together at the Camp David retreat in Maryland to try to chart a path forward for the war. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said at a briefing last week that the cabinet meeting would be “a lot of fun and something different for the cabinet to experience together”.

Top of the agenda will be the Iran war, which Trump promised would last a few weeks but has now dragged on for five months. [/b]A Reuters-Ipsos poll this week found that one in three Americans support the war, the lowest polling since the war began.

[b]Support in Congress is also waning, with the US Senate narrowly rejecting a symbolic vote to express disapproval of the war. The war powers resolution asking the president to stop the war failed in a 49-50 vote.

Inflation caused by the war is a boon for Democrats, who are hoping to wrest control of the house from the Republicans.

Energy companies have posted record profits as a result of the conflict, with ExxonMobil’s profits doubling and Chevron reporting more than five times its profits in the same time period last year.

Mr Trump made the claim hours before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, July 28.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump said: "Frankly we're being very nice to a lot of countries that would not survive without us.

"And you know who wouldn't survive without us? Israel.[

The discussions between the allies on Tuesday will mark the eighth meeting since Mr Trump took office last year.

Mr Netanyahu said ahead of the talks that it would "first and foremost" be about Iran, but "all issues" will be discussed.

According to a source briefed on the matter Mr Netanyahu is going to Washington in "listening mode", the Financial Times reports.

However, it is reported that the Israeli leader desires to expand military action in Iran.

The US and Israel are long-time allies and carried out joint strikes on several key Iranian sites on February 28, sparking a major conflict in the Middle East. Iran retaliated by striking sites across the region and closing the Strait of Hormuz waterway.

The source added that Mr Netanyahu will also raise concerns about Türkiye asking to buy F-35 fighter jets from the US, as he believes it will lessen Israel's military advantage over other countries in the region.

A White House official told FT that Mr Trump would "discuss the conflict in Iran, progress with the Trilateral Framework in Lebanon, and expanding the Abraham Accords".

During his speech in Michigan on Monday, Mr Trump said he's making the "largest-ever investment in the United States Armed Forces", which he called the strongest military in the world

"We're winning big time with the Islamic Republic of Iran. We're ensuring that they're never having a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. If you understood the power of the nuclear weapons, you'd understand exactly what I was saying."

Mr Trump called Iran "the bully of the Middle East".

"You can't bribe them, you gotta beat them, and we're beating the hell out of them," he said.

"We'll see how it turns out. Right now there are very friendly negotiations going on."

Pentagon official warns dwindling missile stockpiles could limit operations against Tehran

The US does not have enough missiles to return to an all-out war with Iran, an American official has warned.

Donald Trump is considering his options to launch a “wider war” against Tehran as more American warplanes are deployed to the Middle East.

However, a US official familiar with administration discussions said the operation would be limited by dwindling stockpiles of air defence and long-range munitions.

We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that,” the official told The Washington Post.

The US expanded its strikes in a ninth consecutive night of attacks on the country, edging closer to all-out conflict in the region.

Iran kept up its barrages across the region in response, with its Revolutionary Guards announcing they had hit targets in Bahrain, Jordan and Syria. Bahrain said Tehran had targeted its air navigation systems.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said Tehran was once again engaged in a “full-scale war” with the US and Washington should accept the repercussions of the conflict.

And yet, both sides have signalled that diplomacy is continuing behind the scenes.

On Monday, Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said that Tehran had received proposals from mediators, and that despite more than a week of attacks, “diplomacy also knows its duties well and spares no efforts”.

Earlier on Sunday night, Marco Rubio said that the US was willing to negotiate.

The US secretary of state said: “We’ve tried multiple times with Iran, and we’ll continue to try. If that door opens, we’ll be happy to see it open.”

The latest barrage of US strikes over the weekend was meant to “punish” Tehran for the deaths of three American soldiers and a suspected fourth in Iranian attacks last week.

On Monday, two of the soldiers were identified as 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, and Pte Isabella Gonzales, 19.

Mr Trump said the US had “hit them [Iran] very hard again” on Sunday night in “honour of” the “three great patriots” who died.

“Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They’ve lost everything almost militarily. They’ve got very little left,” the US president told reporters on his return from the World Cup.

US Central Command (Centcom) announced on Sunday night that human remains had been located at the air base. Officials were yet to verify whether the remains belonged to the third soldier, however Mr Trump later said the death toll in Jordan was “probably” up to three.

Another American soldier died on Saturday during what was described by Centcom as “a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone” in northern Iraq.

Mr Trump called the American deaths “a shame” but argued that the soldiers had been there “because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon”.

Dozens more soldiers are believed to have been injured in other Iranian strikes last week on US bases in Jordan.

The New York Times, citing US officials, said that the Pentagon had not disclosed the injuries or the scale of the damage inflicted, despite the government’s obligation to inform the public about the war

On the home front, Americans are growing increasingly frustrated with Mr Trump over his handling of the war.

The latest public polling says his approval ratings remain stuck at 37 per cent and that most Americans do not believe fuel prices will return to normal.

Early on Monday, explosions were reported in several Iranian cities – Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini on the Persian Gulf, Tabriz, in the north-west, and in Chabahar and Konarak on the Gulf of Oman – state news reported on Monday morning.

The mission, according to Centcom, was intended to “diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.

During the late-night bombardment, which lasted more than three hours, officials at the Pentagon were reportedly discussing how to prepare for the conflict to escalate.

American F-16 fighter jets from Germany and F-35 jets from Britain were being deployed to the Middle East, the New York Times reported, citing officials. Aerial refuelling aircraft were also on the way, the report said.

The additional equipment had reportedly already been ordered before the Iranian attack on the air base in Jordan, with Mr Trump previously signalling plans to intensify military action including the targeting of key infrastructure including bridges and power plants.

However, experts have also warned that, besides a lack of missiles, the US is unprepared for ground operations inside Iran, which Mr Trump refused to rule out last week.

Iran responded to the weekend’s attacks by continuing its strikes on American allies across the Gulf.

Kuwait said it had come under missile and drone attack. It said a power station and water desalination facility had been hit, which it ‌described as ⁠a direct strike on vital civilian infrastructure.

Air sirens continued in Kuwait on Monday morning, and in Bahrain, where the US embassy warned Americans to “remain vigilant” as it had “information to suggest that Iran may seek to target unspecified locations” in Manama, the capital.

A vessel was also on fire off the coast of northern Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz, UK Maritime Trade Operations (HMTO) reported in a notice of “suspicious activity” on Monday morning. It said the cause was unknown.

Sailors safely abandoned the vessel, which was adrift eight nautical miles north-west of Kumzar, UK HMTO later said, adding that it had been hit by an “unknown projectile”.

Shortly after, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that two oil tankers had “exploded and were forced to cease movement” after trying to traverse the strait.

The guards did not directly claim responsibility for the “explosions” but used the statement to warn the US to prepare for a “punitive operation”. Not a “single drop of oil and gas” would be able to pass safely through the waterway while American “aggression”

The IRGC also claimed to have launched a “surprise attack” on an enemy command centre in the Al-Tanf region of Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, Iranian authorities said the US had attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant in the country’s south-west, in Darkhovin.

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency said it was looking into the reports.

The incident was “not believed to pose any radiological risk”, said Rafael Grossi, its director, reiterating his “call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites”.

A U.S. service member was killed Saturday during an operation involving explosive remnants from a downed Iranian drone in northern Iraq, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday.

A second U.S. service member was also wounded in the incident, officials said.

The announcement came as CENTCOM confirmed unidentified remains were found Sunday during the search for a U.S. service member reported missing in Jordan following a separate Iranian attack on Friday.

According to officials, the incident in Iraq happened after U.S. forces recovered a downed Iranian drone and began handling the explosive material left behind.

"A U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone," CENTCOM wrote in a post on X.

The military did not immediately release further details about the incident, but said the other service member injured in the operation is receiving medical treatment.

In Jordan, officials said the unidentified remains recovered Sunday will also undergo an examination to determine their identity.

"After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today," CENTCOM said. "An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing."

Friday's Iranian attack on a U.S. base in Jordan killed two U.S. service members, CENTCOM previously said.

[Four American service members were also medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals, officials said. They have since been discharged.

"CENTCOM is withholding additional information, including the identities of the missing and fallen warriors, out of respect for the families during the notification process," the agency said.

One option is to establish a new base in the Negev big enough to hold the American army’s forces, or to expand one of the Negev’s air force bases and allocate an American compound there.

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) is considering moving its military bases’ operational systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to Israel in order to increase their distance from further Iranian missile and drone attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday.

The US Navy may revamp its base in Bahrain, which has suffered severe damage since late February up until the recent US-Iran ceasefire. Bahrain has been home to the US Navy’s central forces in the Middle East for over 50 years.

One option is to establish a new base in the Negev big enough to hold the American army’s forces, or to expand one of the Negev’s air force bases and allocate an American compound there.

The US Department of Defense and the US Army also plan to renew their supply contracts with the Ministry of Defense and the IDF until 2030, and possibly further.

This idea for relocation follows Iran’s extensive damage to at least 20 US sites across the Middle East since the onset of the war, especially NSA Bahrain.

A screengrab from a video released by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which accompanied a press release describing the operation dubbed ''Epic Fury'', an attack by the United States and Israel on Iran, shows a flight deck crew member signaling an F‑35 jet on an aircraft carrier

The US Army is hoping for less vulnerability in Gulf countries

It would take an estimated $400 million to rebuild what Iran destroyed at NSA Bahrain, excluding costs of debris removal, the rebuilding of two AN/GSC-52B satellite communication terminals and a communications management facility, and other relevant costs.

It is possible that destroyed structures will not be revamped, and command and control nodes may have to be moved underground.

Back in May, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei stated the US military is not well enough protected in the Middle East.

“America will no longer have a safe haven for mischief and the establishment of military bases in the region,” Khamenei posted on his Twitter/X account.

The Pentagon has yet to publicly acknowledge the extent of the damage that Iran inflicted on their naval base in Bahrain. Capt. Tim Hawkins, a US Central Command spokesman, said that the US military struck Iran harder than Iran hit it.

“Centcom rightfully prioritized the protection of people over buildings, and our strategy of protecting people worked,” Hawkins told The Wall Street Journal. “Iran shot more than 8,000 missiles and drones, and only two hits resulted in US fatalities.”

The extensive damage “has the US re-evaluating its entire footprint in the region,” US officials told The Wall Street Journal.

Retired Navy V.-Adm. Kevin Donegan, a US Navy Commander in the Middle East, expects the US does not want to completely remove its presence in Bahrain, given their strong alliance.

Some of Israel’s security officials approve the establishment of American bases in Israel. “A permanent American presence in Israel will require an air defense envelope, and beyond that, it will strengthen the long-term relationship between the militaries and the administrations on the strategic level,” a security source told Walla.

No final decisions have been announced by the US yet.

Moving forces further west offers US more access to future of Middle East

A long-term American presence in Israel gives the US better access to the US Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) at Kiryat Gat, and it can better monitor the ongoing operations in Gaza and the Middle East region.

Meanwhile, in his next visit to Israel later this week, CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper plans to negotiate the Lebanon ceasefire terms and further define the withdrawal lines of the IDF from southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government and Hezbollah want withdrawals that are less modest than those the IDF is offering.

USAF presence in Israel has made things harder for Israel

Israel has already made room for America since the onset of the 2026 Iran war. Ben-Gurion Airport hosted USAF refueling aircraft over the course of the war, which interfered with the flexibility of Israel’s airspace and airport operations.

Not all officials received US military presence in Israel with open arms. Civil Aviation Authority head Shmuel Zakai once called Ben-Gurion a “US military base,” given its constant presence of American planes.

US Air Force presence has also caused the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) to lose NIS 700 million, said National Security Council director Shmuel Ben-Ezra.

In response to the constraints on airport capacity, Maariv said USAF aircraft will be relocated from Ben-Gurion to Israel Air Force bases. Those IAF bases’ troops will move to other bases around Israel.

Donald Trump issued a new warning to Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday amid mounting concern that Israel’s parallel war with Hezbollah could derail the entire peace process with Iran.

“Israel would have been blown up a long time ago, had I not got involved,” the US president told reporters in France ahead of a meeting with G7 leaders on ensuring stability in the Middle East.

Trump repeated his claim that “without the United States, there would be no Israel” and urged Israel’s prime minister to “be more responsible” on Lebanon.

The president’s latest dressing down came as Iran warned that continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon would be considered a breach of the interim agreement to end the war, announced on Sunday.

Israeli officials have argued that Israel is not bound by the agreement because they were not involved in the talks, but Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said that in Tehran’s view, the US and Israel are on the same team.

“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” he said on Tuesday.

Trump, under pressure to secure a lasting end to the unpopular war, offered an indictment of Israel’s record in Lebanon soon after, suggesting Hezbollah ought to be left to someone more capable.

“Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed,” he assessed. “You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses. And they’re not all Hezbollah, I can tell you.

“They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran.”

Trump even suggested Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa would be able to better lead the fight against Hezbollah.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. Because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it ... If Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, he’ll do the job. Syria will do the job.”

Trump said that while he has a “great relationship” with Netanyahu, his counterpart “has to be more responsible” on Lebanon.

Earlier this month, Iran launched missiles at Israel in response to the continued attacks in Lebanon, prompting Trump to intervene and tell Israel not to retaliate. Israel struck targets across Iran hours later.

While Netanyahu has avoided direct confrontation with Trump over the peace plan, senior officials have suggested the deal presents a major headache.

One senior Israeli official told Reuters the agreement was “terrible for Israel”, an assessment they indicated was shared throughout the government from Netanyahu down.

Polls in Israel have repeatedly shown that a larger truce with Iran under these terms isn’t popular either, putting Netanyahu in a bind.

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly running out of patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over ongoing military operations in Lebanon.

In what sources have characterised as one of the most tense exchanges between the two leaders since Trump returned to office, Trump is said to have confronted Netanyahu during a telephone conversation on Monday over concerns about Israel's continued military activity in Lebanon, which he fears could derail Iran ceasefire negotiations after Tehran threatened to withdraw from discussions over Israel's conduct.

Following the call, Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran truce talks, which have reportedly included discussions about ending hostilities in Lebanon, were "continuing, at a rapid pace" after suggesting that Israel had halted operations in Beirut.

Trump and Netanyahu have maintained regular contact since launching joint military operations in Iran, which also triggered escalated conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed paramilitary political organisation Hezbollah.

Netanyahu announced on Monday that the Israeli military would press ahead with operations in Southern Lebanon following strikes in the outskirts of Beirut in response to Hezbollah launching rockets at northern Israel, including near the mixed city of Haifa.

Official U.S. sources briefed on Monday's telephone call told Axios that a "pissed" Trump turned to personal attacks amid mounting frustration with the Israeli leader. "You're f------ crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your a--," Trump reportedly told Netanyahu on the call, noting his support of the Israeli leader amid his corruption trial, after asking, "What the f--- are you doing?"

Trump reportedly added, "Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this," the U.S. official sources said in summation of the conversation between the two world leaders.

Offering additional insight into the exchange, the source revealed that while Trump grasped Israel's decision to respond to Hezbollah attacks, he believed Israel had pushed its military action too far following civilian casualties and the destruction of buildings while pursuing a Hezbollah commander.

A separate U.S. official source suggested that Trump "steamrolled" Netanyahu during the conversation. The official claims, "Bibi said, 'OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of.'"

Following the call, Netanyahu posted on X that Israel's position "remains unchanged," and that the Israel Defense Forces "will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon... if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens."

Yet an Israeli official told Axios that Netanyahu had abandoned plans to launch strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut.

"Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens-Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut. This stance of ours remains unchanged. In parallel, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon," Netanyahu wrote Monday on X.

Trump described the discussion as "very productive" and suggested that Israel would call off further strikes on Beirut.

"I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back," Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.

"Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop - That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel."

He subsequently added regarding the purported agreement, "Let's see how long that lasts - Hopefully it will be for ETERNITY!"

Iran is poised to fire far more long-range missiles at Israel and other Middle Eastern nations after rapidly digging out its buried arsenals – an effort that highlights the limits to US bombing strategy, experts said.

For weeks, strikes by the United States and Israel restricted Iran’s access to its underground missile sites by destroying roads and burying tunnel entrances.

But satellite images reviewed by CNN show how Iran has used simple equipment such as bulldozers and dump trucks to counter those costly campaigns — suggesting that Tehran’s missile capabilities can’t be destroyed just by targeting tunnel entrances, experts said.

While Iran and the US have reached a tentative agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, months of work remain to hammer out details.

If hostilities do resume, Iran is in position to “continue launching missiles so long as they have launchers and crews, even if production has halted,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who analyzes Iran’s missile capabilities. “There’s nothing to prevent the launchers from being armed with the ample stockpile of missiles that the Iranians still have.”

During the fighting, Iran worked to excavate the tunnel entrances at great peril, with the US and Israel often striking the equipment used for digging. That work enabled Tehran to continue firing missiles throughout the war, though at vastly reduced rates. Since the ceasefire more than seven weeks ago, Iranian efforts to excavate the bases have accelerated significantly.

CNN found that Iran has now unblocked 50 out of the 69 tunnel entrances struck by the US and Israel at 18 underground missile facilities.

Iran has repaired other parts of the bases as well, including roads that the US and Israel bombed to prevent missile launchers from using them. Satellite images show almost all these craters have now been filled, and at two sites, even repaved.

“The US military is good at delivering tactical successes, and entombing and suppressing the Iranian missile force is a great example of that,” said Lair. “However, if that isn’t accompanied by a set of reasonable strategic war aims and an achievable theory of victory, it can end up being a strategic failure.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell did not respond to specific questions about CNN’s findings, repeating an earlier statement that “America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing.”

A goal of the war

President Donald Trump has repeatedly pointed to Iran’s arsenal of missiles as a reason for the war, with its destruction being one of the key goals. In a March post to Truth Social, Trump listed “completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them” as one of five “objectives” of the war.

Iran’s network of underground missile bases, which it began building more than 20 years ago, offers considerable protection to its missiles and launchers. The depth of the facilities, some of which are under hundreds of meters of rock, limit the options the US and Israeli militaries have for attacking the bases.

So, in the early weeks of the conflict, the militaries turned to striking their entrances, which combined with efforts to find and destroy launchers, resulted in significantly limiting Iranian missile fire.

Those strikes heavily damaged the bases, burying most tunnel entrances under mountains of debris and shattering roads leading to the sites.

Satellite images reviewed by CNN at the time showed facilities like the Isfahan North Missile Base, a key underground missile location, ravaged by multiple strikes with rubble covering tunnels and launchers destroyed outside.

The US and Israel also undertook a broad effort to wreck Iran’s missile supply chain, from factories where small electronic components are produced, to the sites where rocket propellants and missile bodies are manufactured.

After the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on April 8, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth cited the efforts, saying that Iran would be “digging out your remaining launchers and missiles, with no ability to replace them. You have no defense industry.”

Experts believe Iran still has around 1,000 missiles stored in the underground sites.

That stockpile, deep below the surface, is unlikely to have sustained much damage from strikes at ground level, according to the experts, especially given that the Israeli military struck tunnel entrances in the same manner during the Twelve-Day War last year.

“They were preparing for this kind of war for 20 years,” said Timur Kadyshev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg who studies Iran’s missiles. “They are very prepared.”

A furious repair effort
To reopen the bases, Iran has used a variety of construction and earthmoving equipment. In the satellite images, front-end loaders are visible scooping up rubble as dump trucks fill craters with dirt.

At one base, outside of Isfahan, the US and Israel conducted numerous strikes to block four tunnel entrances during the war. At least 18 craters could be seen at a pair of the entrances, indicating just how many munitions were expended to block the tunnels.

In early May, a satellite image showed a dump truck being used to fill in the craters. The other two entrances, also blocked by craters and debris, had already been opened, and the roads to them, previously destroyed by bombing, had been repaved.

At a base outside of Khomeyn in mid-April, an image showed at least 10 construction vehicles engaged in efforts to reopen one entrance

As Iran recovers its missiles, and restores functionality to its missile bases, analysts are concerned that the continued threat posed by this arsenal is being underestimated, especially given the dwindling supply of US missile interceptors.

The strikes on Iran’s missile factories also may not prevent Tehran from reconstituting its missile production capabilities for as long as the US and Israel would like. During the Twelve-Day War some of these same factories were attacked as well. Although the recent strikes have been much broader, satellite images showed Iran had already rebuilt some of the facilities targeted last June.

US intelligence assessments indicate Iran has already been rebuilding key military capabilities, including restarting drone production and replacing missile launchers and production capacity.

“The Iranians have exceeded all timelines the (intelligence community) had for reconstitution,” one US official told CNN.

For Kadyshev, that difference in technologies exposes the difficulty in pursuing military options against Iran.

“You have to use very sophisticated, very expensive weapons to do this kind of damage, and the recovery is very low tech – it’s just bulldozers.”

A top Pentagon official said Wednesday that the cost of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran is estimated to be $25 billion so far, as the conflict nears a 60-day mark.

The cost estimate came from acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst III, who testified at a House Armed Services Committee hearing alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine.

"Approximately, of this day, we're spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury," Hurst told the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.

He added that most of those costs are from munitions and included operations, maintenance and equipment replacements.

During his questioning time, Smith pointed out that the Pentagon hadn't updated Congress on the cost of the war since it began and asked whether the Defense Department plans to ask Congress for supplemental funding to finance the ongoing conflict.

"We will formulate a supplemental, through the White House, that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict," Hurst told Smith.

Later, in the afternoon, the comptroller also promised to provide lawmakers with a cost breakdown of what the $25 billion was spent on following questions from Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.

That "just reflects the costs of the war," he said. "So we’ve already spent the dollars on munitions and things like that, so we’re factoring in costs of munitions expended in that total."

The total, Hurst said, "reflects the munitions that have been spent to date and other operational costs."

The explanation prompted criticism from Goodlander, who told Hegseth, "We are 60 days in to your war of choice in Iran and you can’t give us an answer on the basic breakdown of American taxpayer dollars that have been spent?”

She asked Hurst whether the money was taken from funds that had already been allocated elsewhere.

"The department deals with contingency operations all the time within its normal budget," he answered.

In March, Pentagon officials told Congress that the war cost $11.3 billion in just the first six days.

The cost estimate comes as gas prices continue to soar across the U.S. and around the globe due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime passageway for oil tankers.

President Donald Trump and other top administration officials on Tuesday met with a group of energy industry executives to discuss topics that included the administration’s possible next steps in continuing the blockade of Iran’s ports and how to minimize impacts on American consumers, a White House official told NBC News.

On Wednesday, Trump warned that Iran "better get smart soon" as negotiations between the two nations stalled.

Earlier this month, several U.S. officials and congressional aides told NBC News that Iran has damaged American military bases and equipment in the Middle East far worse than publicly acknowledged and the damage could lead to billions of dollars in repairs.

The cost of the war is of particular interest to Congress as the conflict is slated to exceed 60 days this week, at which point lawmakers may be called on to approve or reject the ongoing use of military force in Iran. The 1973 War Powers Resolution says that a presidential administration can use military force without congressional approval for up to 60 days, after which the president can request a 30-day extension or Congress can vote to authorize the war.

The Senate has multiple times in the last two months rejected measures that would compel Trump to end the war with Iran. An effort in the House to pass a war powers resolution also failed earlier this month, by just one vote.

Spain’s defence minister confirms move and describes US-Israel war on Iran as ‘profoundly illegal and unjust’

Spain has ramped up its opposition to the US-Israel war on Iran by closing its airspace to US aircraft involved in attacks, underlining its position as Europe’s leading critic of the conflict.

The move, first reported by El País newspaper and confirmed by the defence minister on Monday, comes after Madrid said the US could not use jointly operated military bases in the country for operations related to the war.

“We don’t authorise either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran,” the minister, Margarita Robles, told reporters. “I think everyone knows Spain’s position. It’s very clear,” she added, calling the war “profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust”.

The closure will force military planes, including those based in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, to bypass Spain en route to targets in the Middle East except in emergencies.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has already angered Donald Trump with his unequivocal opposition to the war. Sánchez has called on the US, Israel and Iran to stop the war, saying: “You can’t respond to one illegality with another because that’s how humanity’s great disasters begin.”

The refusal to let the US use the bases prompted Trump to threaten to cut off trade with Madrid.

Asked on Monday if the move to restrict access to its airspace could worsen Spain’s fraught relations with the White House, Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, told local radio: “This decision is part of the decision already made by the Spanish government not to participate in or contribute to a war which was initiated unilaterally and against international law.”

Sánchez signalled the latest move when he told the Spanish congress last week: “We have denied the US the use of the bases at Rota and Morón [de la Frontera] in this illegal war. All flight plans related to the war in Iran have been rejected, including refuelling flights.”

US military aircraft can continue to use the bases within the terms of a bilateral agreement, such as providing logistics support to the 80,000 US forces based in Europe.

But at the end of February, 15 American KC-135 refuelling planes based in Spain were diverted from Morón de la Frontera and Rota to bases in France and Germany.

Responding to claims in the newspaper El Mundo that at least 70 US military flights had used the bases since the conflict began, Robles said the flights in question were military transports and that no fighter or refuelling planes were involved.

Although B-2 and B-52 bombers have flown from bases in Spain on exercises, the only time they have been used to directly attack a third country was during the Gulf war in 1991 under the socialist government of Felipe González.

Large protests against the Trump administration are taking place in cities across the US, marking the third iteration of No Kings rallies that have previously drawn crowds into the millions.

Organisers say they are protesting against policies imposed by US President Donald Trump, including the war in Iran, federal immigration enforcement and the rising cost of living.

"Trump wants to rule over us as a tyrant. But this is America, and power belongs to the people - not to wannabe kings or their billionaire cronies," organisers said.

Trump allies have previously denounced the No Kings protests as the "hate America rally" and accused participants of being linked to the far-left Antifa movement.

Throughout the day on Saturday, demonstrations will take place in nearly every major US city, including New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles.

Rallies have already started in Washington DC and other cities, with throngs of people marching into the nation's capital from the neighbouring Arlington, Virginia. Protesters have been lining the steps of the the Lincoln Memorial and have packed the National Mall.

Like in previous iterations of No Kings, protestors hold up effigies of Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other officials in the administration, calling for their ousting and arrest.

Protests in New York City are expected to start at 14:00 ET (18:00 GMT).

The last No Kings rally in October drew crowds of nearly seven million people nationally.

Several US states mobilised the National Guard, but organisers have maintained that the events are peaceful.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has expanded the scope of presidential power, using executive orders to dismantle parts of the federal government and deploying National Guard troops to US cities despite objections by state governors.

Earlier this year, federal immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, sparking outrage and nationwide protests.

The president has also called on the administration's top law enforcement officials to prosecute his perceived political enemies.

The president says his actions are necessary to rebuild a country in crisis and has dismissed accusations that he is a behaving like a dictator as hysterical. "They're referring to me as a king. I'm not a king," he said in an interview with Fox News in October.

But critics warn some of the moves by his administration are unconstitutional and a threat to American democracy.

Crowds have gathered both in big cities and small towns. No Kings rallies are kicking off in Boston, Massachusetts, Nashville, Tennessee, and Houston, Texas. More big city protests are expected to kick off throughout the day.

The streets are also lined with people in cities like Shelbyville, Kentucky and Howell, Michigan, which has a population of just about 10,000.

People are holding signs protesting against the war in Iran and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in neighbourhoods.

American expats abroad are also gathering to protest. Crowds have formed in Paris, London and Lisbon, where many hold signs calling the president a "fascist" and a "war criminal", as well as calling for his impeachment and removal from office

Trump says he is postponing strikes on Iran power plants after ‘productive’ talks on ending war

Summary

Donald Trump says the US and Iran have held talks on the "complete and total resolution of hostilities" in the Middle East

He says that, as a result of the talks, he has postponed threatened strikes on Iranian power plants - oil and gas prices fall immediately

On Saturday night, Trump gave Iran a 48-hour deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz - or, he said, the US would "obliterate" Iranian power plants, "starting with the biggest one first"

Trump's message is perhaps his most conciliatory since the war began, but it leaves significant unanswered questions - read more from our White House reporter

Earlier, the UK's Keir Starmer and Trump agreed that reopening the Strait of Hormuz is "essential to resume global shipping" during a call late on Sunday

The call - which came on the day Trump shared a satirical clip about the PM - lasted 20 minutes and was "constructive", Downing Street says

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it expects to face "several more weeks of fighting" against Iran and Hezbollah

Dogalmighty17:
He is a clown. Just yesterday he was saying the US doesn't need the strait opened. The day before he said that the strait was already opened. If he tries touching any Iranian power station, I fully expect Iran to target more refineries in the middle east.
Trump will not back down until oil climbs above 160 dpb.

A former senior US government official has said Donald Trump is “in a panic” because the Iran war is not progressing as he had hoped.

Karen von Hippel, who spent nearly six years as a senior adviser in the Department of State’s bureau on counter-terrorism, spoke out after Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not re-opened within 48 hours.

That came barely a day after he said America was preparing to “wind down” its operations in the region.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, von Hippel cast doubt on whether the US president would actually go through with his latest threat.

She said: “It’s certainly not the first time we’ve heard him make ultimatums that he doesn’t act on. We’ve heard that throughout this entire term so far.

“I think he’s in a bit of a panic because he thought the war would go better than it has.

“Just as he said ‘we’re winding it down’, they’re sending thousands of Marines over and the Israelis say they’re going to ramp it up over the next few weeks, so it’s hard to know what’s going on.”

Around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran has been attacking tankers trying to use it since the war began three weeks ago.

That has led to a spike in the price of oil, triggering a potential global economic crisis as energy costs soar.

In a pist on Truth Social, Trump said: “If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

Communities secretary Steve Reed refused to be drawn on whether the UK government agreed with the president.

He told Sky News: “I think you need to ask President Trump about the things that President Trump is talking about.”

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Thursday there is no “timeframe” for ending the US war against Iran and did not deny reports that the Pentagon could seek an extra $200bn in taxpayer funding.

The military US-Israeli offensive began three weeks ago and continues to widen. Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to “massively blow up” the world’s biggest gasfield after Israeli strikes on the Iranian site prompted Tehran to escalate strikes on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Hegseth suggested that Thursday would bring the biggest US onslaught so far. “To date, we’ve struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure,” the defense secretary said. “Today will be the largest strike package yet … death and destruction from above.”

Even as oil prices soar and the US president’s approval rating plummets further, Hegseth declined to offer an exit plan. “We wouldn’t want to set a definitive timeframe,” he said, adding that “we’re very much on track” and Trump will be the one to decide when to stop.

“It will be at the president’s choosing, ultimately, where we say, ‘Hey, we’ve achieved what we need to.’”

The scale of the campaign has grown markedly. In the Gulf, US aircraft and naval units have targeted dozens of vessels, including mine-layers and submarines, as part of an effort to reopen the strategically vital strait of Hormuz, effectively closed by Tehran in the early days of the war.

Hegseth brushed aside suggestions of mission creep as a media invention. The campaign’s goals, he said, are to dismantle Iran’s missile-launching capability, cripple its defense-industrial base and naval fleet and ensure it can never acquire a nuclear weapon.

“Our objectives, given directly from our America-first president, remain exactly what they were on day one. These are not the media’s objectives, not Iran’s objectives, not new objectives. Our objectives – unchanged, on target and on plan.”

In a fresh broadside at the media, Hegseth said: “A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing – we know this at this point – to downplay progress, amplify every cost and call into question every step. Sadly, TDS [Trump derangement syndrome] is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail.”

But he also addressed a media report that the Pentagon has requested more than $200bn in additional funding from Congress to pay for the conflict. The first six days cost close to an estimated $13bn, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

“As far as $200bn, I think that number could move. Obviously it takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said. “We’re going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future.”

Top US military officer Gen Dan Caine, who spoke alongside Hegseth, said the military was “on track” and pushing ever deeper into Iranian territory. Long-range strikes are now penetrating farther east, he said, targeting underground storage facilities, drone garrisons and coastal missile sites with bunker-busting munitions.

Caine outlined the widening geographical scope of the conflict. In the Gulf, A-10 “Warthog” aircraft are being used to hunt fast-attack craft in the strait of Hormuz while, in Iraq, AH-64 Apache helicopters are striking Iran-aligned militia groups. Allied forces have begun deploying similar systems against Tehran’s one-way attack drones.

Hegseth, who has previously expressed sympathy for Christian nationalism, ended his remarks with an overtly religious plea for Americans to pray for US troops “on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ”.

He said at the start of the press conference that his address was aimed more at the American public watching than at the media gathered at the Pentagon.

Hegseth said: “The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump – thank you.” He added: “Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.”

madridguy:
How come President Trump didn't call the Israel's Navy ?

Scorpio99:
People with very low intelligence will always turn everything to tribal matter.

US president signals willingness to engage with Tehran’s surviving leadership as strikes and retaliatory attacks intensify across region

Donald Trump said on Sunday he was prepared to talk to what was left of the Iranian leadership after the killing of the country’s supreme leader by US-Israeli airstrikes aimed at overthrowing the regime.

Trump was speaking as a second day of intense bombing of Iranian cities and Tehran’s missile counterattacks sent tremors across the region and through the global economy. On Monday the conflict spread to Lebanon as Israel began striking Hezbollah targets, after the group launched missiles and drones towards Israel’s north in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, who was also an adviser to the country’s former supreme leader, said on Monday that Tehran would not negotiate with the US, and denied reports that officials had sought to initiate talks with the Trump administration.

Amir-Saeid Iravani, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, told an emergency security council meeting on Saturday that hundreds of civilians had been killed or injured in the US-Israeli strikes. He said they had deliberately targeted civilian neighbourhoods in multiple cities.

The death toll is expected to climb after a second day of bombing. Iranian state media said that 165 people had been confirmed dead in a bomb attack on a girls’ primary school in the southern city of Minab on Saturday.

Among the dead was Khamenei, who had ruled as Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and was the primary target of an initial Israeli strike on Saturday morning. According to several US reports, the CIA had been tracking Khamenei for months. The New York Times reported that the CIA tipped off Israel when the leader convened a meeting of top defence aides at his compound in Tehran, triggering a decision to strike.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the Israeli army employed a ruse to put the Iranian leadership off its guard. On the morning of the operation, army officers were asked not to park their cars in their usual spaces to avoid detection by Iran’s spies. Misinformation was also leaked suggesting that the chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir had stayed at home.

The channel cited officials as saying the Israeli air force killed 30 high-ranking Iranian officials within the first 30 seconds of the attack.

Trump told Fox News that 48 Iranian leaders had been killed in the first two days of bombing, and claimed in a social media post that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and the naval headquarters destroyed.

The ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl reported that the US had identified possible candidates to take over Iran “but they were killed in the initial attack”.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates … It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead,” Trump said, according to Karl’s reports.

Nine Israelis have so far died in Iranian missile counterstrikes, and US forces confirmed their first casualties of the war: three dead and five injured by shrapnel. The official announcement did not give details on where and how the casualties occurred.

Iran has also targeted Gulf countries that host US military bases. Airports in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Dubai were damaged by missiles and remained shut on Sunday, causing one of global aviation’s most severe disruptions in years.

Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile vowed to intensify the aerial attacks on Iran, while Trump said he was open to talks with Iran’s surviving and newly appointed leaders.

They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” he told the Atlantic magazine, without revealing when those talks may start. “They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.”

In remarks to the Daily Mail, Trump suggested the conflict with Iran could go on for the next four weeks. He also said there could be more American casualties and vowed to avenge American deaths.

He was speaking as the global effects of the war began to be felt. The price of oil rose after two reported attacks on tankers in or near the strait of Hormuz.

About 150 tankers were reported to have dropped anchor rather than use the waterway, a route for about a fifth of the world’s traded oil. Major container shipping companies, including MSC and Maersk, have suspended navigation in the region.

The ship attacks were a reminder of the conflict’s potential to trigger an environmental catastrophe.

In launching the war, Trump said it would provide an opportunity for the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the 47-year-old Islamic regime. Nationwide protests earlier this year were brutally suppressed by security forces, and some estimates say tens of thousands of civilians were killed.

The Iranian authorities said that 22 border guards at Mehran, on the Iranian-Iraqi border, had been killed, a sign that the US and Israel were seeking to weaken the regime’s control of Iran’s borders in support of anti-government separatists.

Across the country, Iranians said they felt a mixture of terror and optimism as the bombings continued. Some expressed relief that the long-expected strikes had arrived and opponents of the regime spoke of hope that they may lead to political change – but both were tempered by fear that the attacks would bring more civilian deaths to a country already reeling from recent bloodshed.

Larijani accused the US and Israel of trying to plunder and fragment Iran and warned “secessionist groups” of a harsh response if they attempted to intervene, state television said.

The regime in Tehran insisted that Khamenei’s killing would not weaken its resolve. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Netanyahu and Trump had “crossed a red line” and “will pay for it”, according to state media.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardian Council had temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader until a replacement was chosen. Khamenei had not designated a successor.

Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said he expected the process of selecting a new supreme leader to be relatively quick.