Donald Trump has promised to strike Iran ‘with a force that has never been seen before,’ after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced they had attacked nearly 30 US military bases across the Middle East on Sunday morning.
The targeted attacks on American assets in the destabilized region are part of Iran‘s self-proclaimed ‘most intense offensive operation in history,’ in retaliation for the killing of Islamic State Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Black smoke was seen rising from a US airbase at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq at sunrise, after the IRGC promised its most ferocious counterattack.
Khamenei, Iran’s leader of 37 years, and members of his close family were decimated by bombardment from the US and Israeli‘s Operation Epic Fury in Tehran.
Trump, however, hit back in a midnight Truth Social post that read: ‘Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!’
Israel announced in the early hours of Sunday that it had begun a new ‘strike wave’ targeting Iran’s ballistic missiles and aerial defense systems, after Iran launched drones and missiles at Tel Aviv, which were intercepted and shot down.
In response, the IRGC said it was carrying out a ‘sixth wave’ of ‘extensive missile and drone’ attacks on 27 US military bases. The extent of the damage is not yet clear.
It comes as Iran formally confirmed that Khamenei was killed in his home office. ‘To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return,’ an Iranian news agency said.
Trump is pictured in the situation room at Mar-a-Lago, on the night that the US obliterated Iran’s Supreme Leader’s home, killing him
Black smoke was seen rising from a US airbase at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq at sunrise, after the IRGC promised their most ferocious counterattack
Two high-level military leaders – Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, and commander of the IRGC Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour – and four of Khamenei’s close family were also obliterated in the Tehran strikes on Saturday morning.
State-news agency IRNA reported early Sunday morning that Iranian army chief of staff Abdul Rahim Mousavi and Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh were among the dead.
Jubilant protesters inside Iran were seen toppling a statue of the Ayatollah in the early hours of Sunday in celebration after he was killed by the bombardment.
Similar scenes unfolded across America – notably in Washington DC and Los Angeles, as Iranian-Americans heralded the toppling of the Islamic regime.
By contrast, hundreds of wailing male and female mourners gathered in Tehran’s Enqelab Square on Sunday morning waving flags and marking Khamenei’s death.
While it was not immediately clear how much damage was caused by Iran’s early-morning attack on American bases, the unfolding violence in the Middle East has wreaked havoc for both civilians and tourists.
Sites like tourist-filled hotels in Dubai and Bahrain have been hit with collateral damage after Trump’s decisive mission to take out the Ayatollah on Saturday morning.
Iranian State news agency IRNA said on Sunday that Iran’s president, judiciary chief and a Guardian Council jurist will temporarily be in power to oversee transition following the Supreme Leader’s death.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz publicly congratulated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s military following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader in the airstrikes.
‘He who acted to destroy Israel – has been destroyed,’ Katz wrote in a statement to X.
‘Justice has been served, and the axis of evil has suffered a mortal blow,’ he added.
On the other hand, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf declared on state television that Tehran would ‘get even’ in response, vowing severe retaliation.
Khamenei, Iran’s leader of 37 years, and members of his close family were decimated by joint US and Israeli bombardment on his home in Tehran on Saturday morning
An Iranian projectile leaves a trail in the sky as seen from the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron early on March 1, 2026
He said Iran will ‘get even with the Americans and Israelis,’ adding that their leaders had crossed a line.
‘Trump and Netanyahu have crossed a red line and will the pay the price for it,’ he said.
‘We will strike you with such painful blows that you will beg for mercy, you will see.’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called the killing of Ali Khamenei ‘a great crime’ and promised that Iran would respond.
A statement from his office read: ‘This great crime will never remain unanswered and will turn a new page in the history of the Islamic world and Shiism.’
‘The pure blood of this high-ranking leader will flow like a roaring spring and will eradicate American-Zionist oppression and crime,’ it added.
‘This time too, with all our strength and determination, with the support of the Islamic nation and the free people of the world, we will make the perpetrators and commanders of this great crime regret it.’
Mourners react following the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran
Iran’s representative told the United Nations that they have ‘one word only’ for the United States following the deadly airstrikes on Iran early Saturday morning.
Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the US to be ‘polite,’ during the discussions in New York City.
‘I have one word only,’ he said. ‘I advise to the representative of the United States to be polite. It will be better for yourself and the country you represented, thank you.’
On Saturday morning, at least 108 were killed in the US-Israeli airstrike on a girls’ school in the southern Iranian city of Minab.
The majority of the dead are schoolgirls aged between seven and 12, according to the regime-controlled news outlets Tasnim and Fars.
A teacher at the school told the London-based outlet Middle East Eye that she saw bodies on classroom benches. She had stepped out when she heard the blast and returned to find carnage.
‘I felt like I had gone mute. I couldn’t speak,’ she said. ‘You could hear the sound of children crying and screaming.’
