President Donald Trump announced early Saturday morning that the U.S. military has begun a “massive and ongoing operation” against Iran.
Multiple explosions were reported around Iran in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, though the scope of the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks and the targets of the mission remain unclear at this point.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” the president said in a video posted on Truth Social. “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 raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy.”
“Bombs will be dropping everywhere,” he added.
The Department of War subsequently posted on X that the name of the operation is “Operation Epic Fury”.
US AND ISRAEL LAUNCH ‘PREEMPTIVE’ ATTACK AGAINST IRAN
The president effectively argued for the Iranian people to overthrow the regime in Tehran once the U.S. mission concludes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged in late January that “no one knows” who would take over governing the country if the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is removed from power.
Trump’s remarks indicate the mission will be much larger than the limited U.S. operations last June targeting three of their nuclear facilities. The president’s go-ahead to the military came about a day after the latest round of U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations, while Trump indicated on Friday he was unhappy with the lack of progress.
The president also acknowledged in the video that U.S. personnel or bases could come under attack in the coming days if Iran retaliates. Multiple U.S. embassies are on alert for possible attacks.
“We may have casualties, that often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission,” Trump said. “[Iran] attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland.”
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned of an “immediate state of emergency throughout the entire country,” over concerns that Iran could target the Jewish State in retaliation for the attacks.
Shortly after the initial strikes, the Israel Defense Forces identified that missiles were launched from Iran toward Israel.
TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘NOT HAPPY’ WITH IRAN TALKS AND ‘SOMETIMES’ FORCE IS NECESSARY
The mission was the culmination of weeks of speculation, created mostly by President Donald Trump himself, as to whether he would approve military operations targeting Iranian senior leaders if the two sides failed to make progress in negotiations.
Trump, in January, said “Help is on the way” in a message to Iranian protesters who were involved in nationwide protests that popped up in late December and continued into January. Iran’s security forces reportedly killed thousands of protesters who participated in those protests.
