Trump planning ‘escalating’ strikes on Iran in large operation as Islamic regime assaults US bases and Israel
President Donald Trump is reportedly planning ‘escalating’ strikes on Iran after the US and Israel launched a wave of attacks against the Islamic Regime early Saturday morning.
As Americans were waking up Saturday, Tehran had already responded, retaliating against Israel and attacking US military installations in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.
In the popular UAE tourist destination of Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah Fairmont Hotel was seen on fire after a strike, with video footage showing the assault was carried about by a suicide drone.
Saudi Arabia – which doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Israel but whose leadership is close to the Trump administration – also reported that Iran had targeted Riyadh, but the attacks were repelled.
CNN reported Saturday morning on what could be next, with the network’s Jim Sciutto citing a senior US official and saying that the President’s battle plan consisted of escalating attacks with off-ramps.
The attacks would come over a one to two-day period with pauses to assess the strikes’ damage. The campaign could last weeks.
The initial assault – which Trump referred to as ‘Operation Epic Fury’ – used ‘one way attack drones’ for the first time in combat, according to Fox News Channel.
Also referred to as ‘kamikaze’ drones, the weapons fly into targets and then detonate.
Smoke can be seen rising over Tehran, Iran Saturday morning after the US and Israel conducted ‘major’ operations after nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran broke down
An explosion is seen off the coast of Haifa in northern Israel Saturday as Iran retaliated against a joint US-Israel operation that took place Saturday morning
Tomahawk missiles were used to take out Iran’s air defenses before the drones were deployed.
‘We have effectively suppressed their air defenses,’ a US official told Fox.
The US military focused on ‘high value targets,’ Fox said, including assets important to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and ‘underground targets’ that likely were part of Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour were killed in Israeli attacks, sources told Reuters.
Iranian state media say an Israeli strike on a girls’ elementary school killed at least 40 people.
Trump announced the US strikes in a video message posted to Truth Social at 2:30 a.m. ET.
In an eight minute speech, given from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the President said he had ordered a ‘major’ strike on Iran after nuclear negotiations between the two countries had broken down.
‘Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,’ Trump said.
He, again, reiterated that the Iranian regime must never obtain a nuclear weapon.
While Trump’s military maneuvering so far in his second term – the January capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and the ‘Midnight Hammer’ attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in June – haven’t cost servicemembers’ lives, he warned that Americans could die this time around.
A social media post shows the Palm Jumeirah Fairmont Hotel in the popular tourist destination of Dubai, UAE on fire Saturday after an Iranian rocket strike
A smoke plume rises over Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a country that houses US military personnel and installations
Smoke from a reported rocket interception is seen over the sky in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates where the US has military personnel
‘Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill,’ Trump said. ‘The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties.’
‘That often happens in war,’ the commander-in-chief added. ‘But we’re doing this not for now, we’re doing this for the future and it is a noble mission.’
Trump called out the Iranian regime and their proxies for creating ‘mass terror’ around the world, but he also pointed to the Tehran’s recent mass murder domestically, of protesters in their own streets.
In mid-January, the President had promised those protesters that ‘help is on the way.’
In his overnight message, he pushed the Iranian people to take back control of their government, which was put in place after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
‘Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered, don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere,’ Trump said. ‘When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.’
