US-Iran Tensions Escalate: Casualties Feared
WASHINGTON — The United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in what officials describe as the biggest foreign-policy gamble of President Donald Trump’s presidency. The coordinated strikes targeted three locations within 60 seconds of one another, killing Iran’s supreme leader and approximately 40 senior officials, according to an Israeli military official who cited months of planning and close coordination with real-time intelligence that the targets were gathered together.
Three U.S. service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during military strikes on Iran, the Pentagon announced Sunday. Trump addressed the casualties in an interview with NBC News from his Florida resort, where he spent the day conducting interviews about the attack on the Islamic republic.
“We have three, but we expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world,” Trump told NBC News. The president said he expects the military operation to last roughly four weeks.
In a roughly six-minute video posted on social media Sunday afternoon, Trump called the three fallen service members “true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives.” He pledged that America would “avenge their deaths.”
“Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends. That’s the way it is. Likely be more,” Trump said in the video message.
The operation comes after Trump campaigned for reelection as a “peace president” and repeatedly stated he preferred a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran. Trump addressed the nation briefly in his State of the Union speech last Tuesday before releasing a video message Saturday that laid out key objectives, including preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Trump has claimed to have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program in strikes last June but said this week that Tehran had attempted to rebuild the program. The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.S. intelligence community have separately assessed that Iran shuttered a nuclear weapons development program in 2003. Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear weapons but maintains it has the right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran has alleged that strikes hit a girls’ elementary school in the southern town of Minab on Saturday, killing more than 100 people. Neither the United States nor Israel have confirmed any such attack took place. Israel said it was not aware of any U.S. or Israeli strike on a school, and Washington said it was looking into the reports. AFP has been unable to independently verify the toll or circumstances.
The State Department has authorized non-essential U.S. diplomats and families of all government personnel to leave Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Updated travel advisories issued Sunday cited “security concerns” and the “threat of armed conflict” with significant disruptions to commercial air travel in the region.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Royal Air Force jets have intercepted Iranian strikes as part of defensive operations in the region. The international response continues to develop as the conflict enters its second day.
