The US and Israel on Feb 28 launched what they described as a “pre-emptive” joint strike against Iranian targets, with Trump announcing start of “major combat operations”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assassinated in US-Israeli strikes, which have so far killed over 1,000 people across Iran
President Donald Trump said it would be a “waste of time” currently to consider sending US ground troops into Iran
Iran FM says government has not asked for ceasefire. “We do not see any reason to negotiate with US.”
At least 190 children, including 181 in Iran, have been killed in the region after the US and Israel attacked Iran, said UNICEF.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards challenged US President Donald Trump to deploy US naval vessels to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported, according to Reuters.
Guards spokesperson Alimohammad Naini said: “Iran strongly welcomes the escort of oil tankers and that US forces will be there for the crossing of the Strait of Hormuz. And we are, by the way, awaiting their presence,” according to state media.
Guards spokesperson Alimohammad Naini said: “Iran strongly welcomes the escort of oil tankers and that US forces will be there for the crossing of the Strait of Hormuz. And we are, by the way, awaiting their presence,” according to state media.
Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians have died so far in the conflict with Israel and the US, and that thousands more have been injured, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York, Iravani asserted that the U.S. and Israel had deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure, while Iran had targeted military sites, not civilians.
Israel said it had launched “broad-scale” strikes on targets in Tehran, as the Iranian state broadcaster reported an explosion in the western part of the city, AFP reports.
“The IDF has begun a broad-scale wave of strikes” on government targets in the Iranian capital, an Israeli military statement said.
The announcement of the new offensive came just after the army said it had detected another round of Iranian missile fire headed towards Israel.
A drone attack targeted the Baghdad airport complex, which houses a military base and a US diplomatic facility, security sources said.
A security official told AFP that “the airport came under a series of attacks” with drones and missiles, adding that ambulances were dispatched to the scene.
Another security source confirmed there was a drone attack followed by a fire at the airport.
Qatar’s aviation authority said that the Gulf state’s airspace would partially reopen after it was closed to all air traffic, AFP reports.
“Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the partial resumption of air navigation in the State of Qatar, through designated navigational contingency routes with limited operational capacity,” the body said.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, has responded to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who had called for an end to “unlawful attacks in the Middle East”.
“Let’s call a spade a spade. This is not “the fighting”; this is an ‘unprovoked act of aggression’ launched by two nuclear armed regimes against Iran,” Baqaei said in response.
“We WERE in ‘serious diplomatic negotiations’ while the US/Israel attacked Iran, for a second time during the past 9 months,” he said.
“You are concerned about ‘grave risk to the global economy’; what about the innocent civilians, including 175 little angels slaughtered in the city of Minab, and many more killed and maimed across Iran during the past seven days of American/Israeli criminal acts?!”
Baqaei further said that the UN should be forthright and “shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities regarding this illegal war on Iran”.
Iran targeted Qatar with 10 drones, Doha’s defence ministry said in a statement, according to AFP.
“Qatar was subjected to waves of attacks from the Islamic Republic of Iran involving 10 drones, starting from dawn on Friday,” it said, adding that the military “successfully intercepted nine drones, while one drone struck an uninhabited area, without causing any casualties”.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has spoken on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Al Jazeera has reported, citing Iran’s government news service.
US President Donald has said on Truth Social that US defence companies have agreed to “quadruple production”, reports Reuters.
“We just concluded a very good meeting with the largest US defence manufacturing companies where we discussed production and production schedules. They have agreed to quadruple production of ‘exquisite class’ weaponry in that we want to reach, as rapidly as possible, the highest levels of quantity … We have virtually unlimited supply of medium and upper medium grade munitions, which we are using, as an example, in Iran, and recently used in Venezuela. Regardless, however, we have also increased ordered at these levels,” he said.
An Iranian military spokesman has told state TV that Iran has not closed the Strait of Hormuz, reports Reuters.
The military spokesman, Abolfazl Shekarchi, is the third Iranian official who has repeated that statement.
Separately, Al Jazeera quoted an Iranian military spokesperson as saying that Iran does not plan to close the vital maritime route, but rather the reason for a decrease in traffic through the strait is the danger posed by the ongoing war.
“We will not prevent any ship wishing to cross the Strait of Hormuz, but the responsibility for its security lies with the ship itself”, the spokesperson said.
“We will target any ship belonging to the Zionist entity [Israel] and America if it attempts to cross the Strait of Hormuz.”
The White House has downplayed a report that Russia is providing Iran with targeting information about US forces in the Middle East, according to AFP.
“It clearly is not making a difference with respect to the military operations in Iran because we are completely decimating them,” House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“We are achieving the military objectives of this operation and that is going to continue,” Leavitt said.
The Washington Post, citing officials familiar with the intelligence, said Russia has provided Iran with the locations of US military assets, including ships and aircraft.
The Post said China did not appear to be aiding Iran’s defences.
Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon have killed at least nine people, Lebanon’s health ministry has said, according to AFP.
In a statement, the ministry said “Israeli enemy air strikes on Nabi Sheet” in the eastern Baalbek district killed at least nine people and wounded 17 in a preliminary toll.
“Rescue and debris removal operations are ongoing” to search for missing people, the ministry added.
Rockets have targeted the Baghdad airport complex that hosts a military base and a US diplomatic facility, AFP quotes Iraqi authorities as saying.
Security sources previously told AFP that drones had carried out the attack.
The Iraqi government’s security media cell said in a statement that “at 8:20 pm (1720 GMT), a number of rockets were launched” from the Abu Ghraib district near Baghdad.
It added that several rockets “fell on empty areas far from Baghdad International Airport”, though it did not specify whether they crashed in or near the military base.
A security official later told AFP that “two rockets and not drones” fell inside the base.
The attack did not cause casualties or significant material damage.
Saudi Arabia has intensified direct engagement with Iran to help contain the ongoing war in the Middle East, reports Reuters citing Bloomberg News article.
The article, that quoted several several European officials, said Saudi officials in recent days have used their diplomatic backchannel to Iran with increased urgency to ease tensions and keep the conflict from worsening.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that ongoing attacks in the Middle East and beyond pose a grave a risk to the global economy.
“All the unlawful attacks in the Middle East and beyond are causing tremendous suffering and harm to civilians throughout the region – and pose a grave a risk to the global economy, particularly to the most vulnerable people,” he said in a statement.
He added: “The situation could spiral beyond anyone’s control. It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations. The stakes could not be higher.”
The opening phase of US and Israeli strikes on Iran has involved a higher tempo of targeting than any recent American or Israeli air campaign, Al Jazeera reports citing new analysis by monitoring group Airwars.
“By comparing publicly released targeting figures from both the US and Israeli militaries with historic data, the analysis found the initial days of the campaign hit significantly more targets per day than any campaign in recent decades”, it claims.
Even compared with Israel’s initial bombardment of Gaza, Airwars says only around half as many targets were hit in those first days in Gaza as have been declared in the early phase of the Iran operation.
“While comparisons between conflicts are often imperfect as militaries release varying amounts and types of information, this Iran campaign appears to be vastly outpacing any other recent US air war”, it notes.
Iranian state media is reporting the sounds of explosions near Natanz in central Iran, Al Jazeera reports.
Natanz is home to one of Iran’s biggest nuclear enrichment facilities and was bombarded both during the 12-Day War in 2025 and earlier during the current war.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister has unequivocally pushed back on Azerbaijan’s assertion that an Iranian drone targeted the autonomous Nakhchivan exclave a day prior, Al Jazeera reports.
“Iran was not responsible for such an attack,” Takht-Ravanchi tells France 24, but said Tehran was “investigating”.
“That missile did not come from Iran,” he maintains.
Israel’s military chief has claimed that its forces are “crushing the Iranian terrorist regime”, AFP reports.
“We are crushing the Iranian terrorist regime and will seize every opportunity to deepen our achievements,” Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir told soldiers, according to a statement issued by the military.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi has justified Tehran’s latest moves as defensive, saying that “this war was imposed on us” by the US and Israel, Al Jazeera reports.
In a fiery interview with France 24, the diplomat said, “We were negotiating in good faith,” before the US changed its tune.
“We do not trust the Americans,” he said. “Not only did they betray us, but they betrayed diplomacy.”
