U.S. President Donald Trump, in conjunction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decided, perhaps long ago, to again seek military glory by attacking Iran. The U.S.-Israeli pretense is that this is being done on behalf of Iranians, for their “freedom,” and to remove “an existential threat” to the United States, so obviously regime change is one of the central objectives of the operation.
One of the early targets was Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s residential compound in Tehran. By early evening local time, Israeli officials were telling Israeli news outlets that Khamenei was dead, but there is no official confirmation of his status as of this writing. Other senior officials targeted by the opening U.S.-Israeli salvo are known to have survived, among them Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani and President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The U.S.-Israeli attacks began about mid-morning Tehran time on Feb. 28. The first attack on Tehran was carried out with Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. ships in the Gulf of Oman. Confirmed targets in Tehran included: Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, Iran’s Ministry of Defense, the Supreme Leader’s office, Iranian Atomic Energy Agency and Parchin (which is not actually in Tehran but does host important military facilities). The Iranian President’s Office and the Supreme National Security Council building were also reported to have been targeted. There were also strikes in Qom, Ilam, Kermanshah, and Lorestan. Basij militia forces are deployed throughout the streets of Tehran, security checkpoints have been set up everywhere, and martial law is in effect, according to Iranian reports.
According to the Iranians, one Israeli strike targeted the Shajareh-Tayyebeh Girls’ Elementary School, in Minab, Hormozgan province, killing at least 85 schoolgirls and wounding 92 others. “This savage act adds another black page to the record of countless crimes by the aggressors, a memory that will never be erased from our nation’s history,” said President Pezeshkian.
