US President Donald Trump has said the US military has launched ‘major combat operations’ against Iran, including airstrikes across the country, while Iran has confirmed it carried out retaliatory strikes.
As smoke rose over parts of central Tehran following a wave of coordinated US-Israel strikes, Trump said the US is conducting a ‘massive and ongoing operation’ in Iran.
‘massive and ongoing operation’
He framed the action as an attempt to stop a regime he described as a ‘very wicked, radical dictatorship’ from endangering the US and its partners.
‘very wicked, radical dictatorship’
Trump also warned the situation could come at a human cost, saying lives may be lost.
‘we may have casualties,’
He added:
‘that often happens in war’.
The President reiterated that his stated aim is to ‘defend the American people’ against what he called ‘imminent threats’ from Iran.
‘defend the American people’
‘imminent threats’
As he said in a video posted on Truth Social:
\”Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.\”