Iranians CHEER US air strikes as missiles rain down on Tehran and Trump urges them to overthrow Ayatollah

An Iranian schoolboy was filmed shouting ‘I love Trump!’ as smoke rose over Tehran following US airstrikes on the capital.

Video shared online shows a group of high school students celebrating as plumes billowed into the sky behind them, with one boy heard praising the American president. 

The footage emerged after President Donald Trump urged Iranians to use the US attacks as an opportunity to overthrow the country’s clerical regime. 

‘When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,’ he declared in a video address.

He also told members of Iran’s security forces they would be granted ‘immunity’ if they laid down their arms, warning that those who refused would ‘face certain death’.

In early January, Trump threatened to bomb Iran as security forces cracked down on nationwide anti-government protests, killing at least 6,480 people, according to human rights activists. 

He warned that those responsible would ‘pay a big price’ and told protesters that ‘help is on its way’.

But the president said days later that he had received assurances from Iran’s government that the ‘killing has stopped’ and his focus turned to the country’s nuclear programme, which has been at the centre of a long-running dispute with the West. 

Trump unleashed joint US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Saturday. Iranian media reported strikes nationwide, and smoke could be seen rising from the capital.

The attack, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, targeted the offices of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – with a plume of thick grey smoke seen pouring from the building.

It is unclear whether the 86-year-old dictator was caught up in the strike, with the compound understood to be generally used as his official residence. 

Earlier, Iranian officials reported that Khamenei had been moved out of Tehran to a secure location. 

In a post on Truth Social, Trump told the Ayatollah to either ‘surrender or die’ as he announced the US had launched strikes across several cities in Iran. 

He said: ‘To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity.

‘Or in the alternative, face certain death. So, lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.’ 

Iran said there would be a ‘crushing response’ with explosions rocking northern Israel shortly after 8am on Saturday morning.

The Israeli military said it had identified ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards Israel, with defensive systems operating to ‘intercept the threat’.

Blasts have also rocked Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi sparking fears the Middle East may now be on the brink of all out war.

A Dubai resident reported hearing a blast so loud it made her home ‘tremble’ after an Iranian strike hit Abu Dhabi, 100 kms away.

In Bahrain, officials confirmed that the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet had been targeted by a missile attack – with footage shared on social media showing a large plume of smoke rising into the sky.  

The operation in the Middle East has been dubbed ‘Epic Fury’ by the US Department of Defence, which Trump has renamed the Department of War. 

‘We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground, it will be totally, again, obliterated,’ Trump said in his announcement. 

‘We’re going to annihilate their navy, we’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called, to gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.

‘And we will ensure that Iran does not attain a nuclear weapon – a very simple message: They will never have a nuclear weapon.’

The UK Government said its priority is ‘the safety of UK nationals’ in the Middle East but that it is ‘ready to protect our interests’.

A Government spokesperson said: ‘Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution.

 ‘Our immediate priority is the safety of UK nationals in the region and we will provide them with consular assistance, available 24/7.

‘As part of our longstanding commitments to the security of our allies in the Middle East, we have a range of defensive capabilities in the region, which we have recently bolstered. We stand ready to protect our interests.

‘We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.’

In Tehran, witnesses heard the first blast by Mr Khamenei’s office on Saturday morning. Iranian state television later reported the explosion, without offering a cause.

There have also been unverified reports of explosions in other locations across Iran including Isfahan, the third biggest city, and Tabriz. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the joint attack with the US aimed to ‘remove an existential threat posed’ by Iran. 

More explosions struck Iran’s capital after Israel said it was attacking the country. Authorities have offered no casualty information from the strikes.

Meanwhile, Iran shut down its air space and mobile phone services were cut.

Israel has warned its own citizens to prepare to take cover if the Iranians fight back, with sirens already being heard across Israel.

The country’s Defense Force said: ‘This is a proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the State of Israel.’ 

Airspace above Israel was closed to civilian flights following the strike this morning.

The explosions come as tensions are high between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme. 

This week Trump made the grave warning that Iran is manufacturing weapons that could soon strike US.

Tehran is ‘working on missiles that will soon reach’ America, Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. 

He also vowed to prevent Iran, the ‘number one sponsor of terrorism,’ from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump has openly flirted with regime change too, telling reporters recently that the ousting of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ‘would be the best thing that could happen.’

But US intelligence reports have not yet concluded that Iran is capable of crafting a weapon capable of reaching the homeland.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessed last year that Iran could need until 2035 to create a ‘militarily viable’ intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – the kind that travels thousands of miles, including, for a time, through space before the warhead plummets towards its target.

‘Iran has space launch vehicles it could use to develop a militarily-viable ICBM by 2035 should Tehran decide to pursue the capability,’ the DIA report states.

Two aircraft carrier strike groups – representing around 15,000 soldiers, over a dozen ships, hundreds of planes and likely some submarines – are being used by Trump to get Iran to capitulate to his denuclearization demands.

In addition, many thousands of troops and scores of military assets are on bases throughout the region, though there are some reports of evacuations.

The stalemate has recently shown some signs of traction with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, with chief Iran negotiator Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister. 

Additional meetings were scheduled for Friday. 

The heated tensions this year come just months after Operation Midnight Hammer – one of the most sophisticated military aviation successes in recent American history.

Last June, Trump’s B-2 Stealth Bombers were flown to Iran in a 37-hour secret mission to quell the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear capabilities. 

Two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles hit Iran in the operation.

Their purpose was to neutralize Iranian defense systems protecting nuclear enrichment facilities at Isfahan. When these sites had been destroyed, the B-2 group entered Iranian airspace.

The stealth jet squadron slipped into enemy skies, moving into attack formation at ‘high altitude and high speed’, with lighter, more mobile F-22 fighter jets sweeping in front of the B-2s to shield them from any surface-to-air or air-to-air fire.

There was none. Not a single shot was fired at any of the aircraft or warships involved in Midnight Hammer from the beginning of the operation to its end.