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- US President Donald Trump says American forces have conducted “very successful” strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan and that all US planes are now out of Iranian airspace.
- Israel’s attacks on Iran continue, with Israeli forces targeting military facilities and nuclear sites. Earlier, Iran launched dozens of drones towards Israel.
- Trump has publicly rebuked his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, saying she was wrong to state there was no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon.
- Iran says more than 400 people have been killed and at least 3,056 others wounded since Israel launched its attack on June 13. In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed in Iranian strikes.
Ali Khamenei’s Telegram account shares previous warning to US
The Iranian supreme leader’s Telegram account has re-shared televised comments by Khamenei from Wednesday, in which he said that the US would be entering the war “to its own detriment”.
“The damage it will suffer will be far greater than any harm Iran will encounter,” Khamenei says in the video.
‘Too soon to tell’ whether this will be a one-off strike
Bill Courtney, a senior fellow at the US-based think-tank the RAND Corporation, says that it remains to be seen whether these US strikes will be followed by further attacks on Iran.
“It’s too soon to tell. Partly, it will depend on whether Fordow was fully penetrated. Each B-2 bomber flying from Diego Garcia [a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean] could carry two of these 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrators,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Fordow would have required more than one or two, probably, to be fully destroyed. So we’ll have to see what is the battle damage assessment from this strike on Fordow, and that could have something to do with whether the US continues a bombing effort.”
US Senator Graham says bombing was ‘the right call’
United States Senator Lindsey Graham has taken to social media to praise Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Good. This was the right call. The regime deserves it,” Graham posted on X. “To my fellow citizens: We have the best Air Force in the world. It makes me so proud.”
“Fly, Fight, Win.”
Israel was seeking US involvement in war with Iran
Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
We aren’t getting much from Israeli officials just yet, since it is late, around 3am local time (00:00 GMT), but let’s get some background and some context.
Since Israel decided to attack Iran nine days ago, they have been saying that they do want the Americans to get involved in this. This is what was being pushed in the Israeli media, there were banners that were being put up across places in Israel, it’s unclear by who, calling for US President Trump to “finish the job”.
So, it’s important to note also that within the last day, reports have emerged of Israeli officials having a call with people in the Trump administration, but not Trump himself, that Israel was growing impatient with the US not deciding if they were going to get involved or not; that they didn’t want to wait for this two-week deadline that Trump had previously given.
Ex-Israeli defence minister praises US strikes
Yoav Gallant calls the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities a “bold decision” by the US president.
“The world is now a safer place,” Gallant, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for suspected war crimes in Gaza, said in a social media post.
Trump acting on guidance that US strikes would ‘not allow for escalation’
The president has been, for the last few days, convening his national security team in the Situation Room.
And what he was asking, according to my sources, is if it was possible to strike these facilities, to eradicate the nuclear programme, and not draw the United States forces into a broader conflict.
Now, you could argue that there is different thinking on this – some people say this is going to draw the US into a broader conflict.
But what he was advised is that this could be an effective single-strike operation, that this would allow for the dismantling of the programme and would still not allow for any escalation.
So, based on that guidance, we could assume this is a one-off. But it all depends on how the allies of Iran will react.
We know that they have strong alliances with China, with Russia, and we also know that there was a careful warning that was given to the United States in advance of these strikes, and that was, if you assist Israel, there will be a price to pay.
So Donald Trump has been advised that, as commander-in-chief, this will not lead to escalation.
That is the guidance he’s acted on.
But he knows there is a chance that there could be an escalation as a result of his action.
Houthi official says US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities is ‘beginning’ of war
Mohamed al-Farah, a member of the Yemeni group’s political bureau, says it is clear that Trump wants the hostilities to be quick and for the war to end.
However, “destroying a nuclear facility here and there is not the end of the war, but it’s the beginning”, al-Farah said in a statement.
“The time of hit and run is gone.”
Hours earlier, the Houthis threatened to attack US ships in the Red Sea if Trump joined Israel in attacking Iran.
