US President Donald Trump says Iran “will be hit very hard” today, with areas of the country under consideration for “complete destruction and certain death. Follow for live updates.
US President Donald Trump signaled plans to escalate the conflict. Tehran has vowed to continue its retaliatory strikes.President Donald Trump reiterated Saturday that he wants to be involved in the selection of Iran’s next leader, saying he doesn’t “want to come back every 10 years.
” “We don’t want to come back every five years or every 10 years and do this. We want to pick a president that’s not going to be leading their country into a war,” Trump added to reporters aboard Air Force One. “Well, I may be, yeah. I mean, it depends on who the person is. I don’t mind religious leaders. I deal with a lot of religious leaders and they are fantastic,” Trump told CNN.President Donald Trump said the United States does not want Iranian Kurdish groups involved in the war with Iran, contradicting previous efforts by the CIA,“We’re not looking to the Kurds going in. We’re very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don’t want to make the war anymore complex than it already is,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Saturday. “Yeah, I have ruled it out. I don’t want the Kurds going in. … They’re willing to go in, but I’ve told them, I don’t want them to go in,” Trump said. “The war’s complicated enough without having — getting the Kurds involved.” Sources previously told CNN that the CIA was working to stoke an uprising in Iran by arming the Kurdish forces, and they said that the Trump administration had been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support.the Kurds, an ethnic minority group, make up about 8% to 17% of the Iranian population, according to British government estimates, and they have historically sought greater independence and improved rights. There are also Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria.An Army carry team moves a flag-draped transfer case with the remains of Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska, who was one of six US army service members killed in a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait.of the six service members killed this week in Kuwait, recognized the somber moment, saying, “It’s a very sad day.” When asked about whether the ceremony made him reconsider the war, Trump doubled down on the US military operation and said, “We’re winning the war by a lot.”The president has previously said there will likely be more US casualties in the Iran war. Asked Saturday whether he thought he would have to attend more dignified transfers, Trump said, “I’m sure. I hate to … but it’s a part of war.”The silhouette of a US Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber at RAF Fairford in south west England shortly after sunrise on Saturday. Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given approval for Washington to use the bases of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and RAF Fairford in south-west England to bomb Iranian missile sites, after several Gulf countries were targeted by Iranian retaliations.President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed the United Kingdom for “finally giving serious thought” to deploying aircraft carriers, hours after the“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump said on The president then addressed Prime Minister Keir Starmer directly, threatening that the US will “remember” the move. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!,” Trump said. Britain’s defense ministry also announced earlier Saturday that the US has started using British bases “for specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region.” Asked by reporters on Air Force One about the British government’s offer of use of bases, Trump reiterated that the move it is too late. “We don’t need them. It’s not the right time. It would have been nice to have had them two weeks ago,” Trump said.The aircraft carrier’s state of readiness doesn’t mean that the British government has decided to deploy the HMS Prince of Wales nor that the warship cannot be involved in other planned missions, CNN understands. Starmer has sought to distinguish between the Americans’ operations, and initally denied the US permission to use British bases for offensive strikes on Iran.Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of a US-Israeli strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, on February 28.President Donald Trump on Saturday cast blame upon Iran for the strike on an elementary school in southern Iran that killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers, contradicting analyses “Based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Trump further characterized Iranian munitions as “very inaccurate.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also blamed Iran, telling reporters, “The only side that targets civilians is Iran.” The White House has not previously ruled out that US military personnel carried out the strike, while Hegseth said Wednesday that an investigation was ongoing.CNN previously reported that satellite imagery, geolocated videos, public statements from US officials and the assessment of munitions experts suggest that the Shajare Tayyiba elementary school in Minab was hit on February 28 at around the same time as an attack that American forces likely carried out on a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN’s Jessica Dean that President Donald Trump has not made a case for the Iran war and has fallen short on his promise to lower costs. Jeffries said taxpayer dollars should make life “more affordable,” but Trump is instead spending billions to “drop bombs in another war in the Middle East.” The House minority leader said Trump’s divergence from campaign promises is “part of a pattern of candidate Trump promising one thing, and then President Trump doing the exact opposite.”Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, has said US President Donald Trump’s war against Iran is the result of his “international miscalculation,” in that Trump thought he could repeat the Venezuela model in Iran, but is now caught in a strategic deadlock. In an interview broadcast on Iranian state TV Saturday, Larijani said the US was now “stuck in the quagmire of its own miscalculations,” and that Trump had failed to achieve his aims through strikes on Iran. Larijani said the killing of Iran’s leadership and more than a thousand Iranian people will not remain an unanswered crime, and Iran will not retreat until “retaliation” is achieved and the aggressor is punished.President Donald Trump salutes as members of military carry a transfer case during a dignified transfer of the remains of six US Army service members who were killed in Kuwait, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on Saturday.The families of the six US Army Reserve soldiers who were killed this week in Kuwait watched as their loved ones were brought home during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance joined top military officials observing the solemn event on an overcast afternoon. As the transfer cases were taken from a C-17 across the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base, Trump saluted wearing a white ball cap with gold “USA” lettering.in Kuwait on March 1 as Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens and Sgt. Declan Coady. Marzan is believed to have been killed in the strike, but is still awaiting final positive identification by a medical examiner. All six soldiers were assigned with the 103rd Sustainment Command, an Army Reserve unit out of Iowa. They were serving in the Middle East with the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, which oversees the supplying US forces throughout the Middle East. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, Army chief of staff Randy George and special envoy Steve Witkoff were also in attendance.The Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency said US and Israeli bombing targeted an oil refinery in southern Tehran. CNN crews heard what sounded like a wave of airstrikes and major explosions in the Iranian capital, with thuds in the east, south and northwest of the city.in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates Saturday. Debris from an intercepted projectile over Dubai killed a driver, the government media office said inUS attack on a desalination plant — which turns sea water into drinking water — off the southern coast of Oman impacted the water supply in 30 villages.The Gulf nation has made precautionary reductions in crude oil production, according to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. It marks another disruption to the global energy industry asAn unidentified airstrike killed a member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces — a predominantly Shiite, Iranian-backed paramilitary force — and wounded three others, according to the country’s Joint Operations Command. CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen, Claudia Otto, Max Saltman, Jennifer Hansler, Tim Lister, Adam Pourahmadi, Catherine Nicolls, Michelle Velez and Christian Edwards contributed to this report. Israel will continue to strike Iran “with all our might,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday. In a recorded statement, Netanyahu claimed Israel and the US have achieved “almost complete control” over the skies of Iran and that there are “many more targets and surprises prepared.”Netanyahu directly threatened members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying, “You are in the crosshairs.” The prime minister said the military operation with the US will “create the conditions that will allow the Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands.” He urged Iranians to rise up. “The moment of truth is approaching. We do not seek to divide Iran but to free it from the yoke of tyranny and live with it in peace, but ultimately it depends on you,” he said. Against the backdrop of intensified Israeli strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, Netanyahu called on the Lebanese government to adhere to its commitment under the November 2024 ceasefire agreement and disarm Hezbollah. “Failure to do so will have disastrous consequences for Lebanon. It is time for you to take your fate into your own hands. We will do whatever is necessary to protect our citizens,” he said.President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force One upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on Saturday.President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance, first lady Melania Trump and Cabinet officials will be in attendance. “I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time,” Trump wrote onThe service members being honored are Maj. Jeffery O’Brien, Capt. Cody Khork, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens and Sgt. Declan Coady. All were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, an Army Reserve unit out of Iowa. Four of them grew close bonds while they previously served in the same unit during 2019 in Kuwait, retired US Army Col. Josef Sujet, then chief of staff of the 103rd Sustainment Command, told CNN.Residents filling up Saturday at an Arco gas station in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood expressed concern about both the war with Iran and the Tracy Scott, a schoolteacher who said she also drives Uber to make ends meet, said she feels the Trump administration made the decision to go to war without considering the impact it may have on lower- and middle-class people. “The people that may have started the war, they don’t have a clue about the price because they don’t drive cars. They have people that drive for them. So, it’s the middle class and the poor that see it the most and suffer the most,” Scott said. The 47-year-old also said she does not support the war and questioned why President Donald Trump chose to attack Iran. “I feel like our president has become a bully and is making us more of a target than trying to help the world,” Scott said.Tamira Moncur, an Atlanta resident who is a part-time teacher and Lyft driver, called the spike in gas prices “startling.” She told CNN that a coworker had warned her earlier in the week to fill up before prices climbed further. A man who declined to provide his name said that, while he’s concerned about rising gas prices and inflation, he fully supports Trump’s decision to attack Iran, even if it means paying more at the pump. “We must support our troops,” he said.Flames rise from an oil storage facility are seen in the south of the capital Tehran as strikes hit the city on Saturday.CNN’s team in Tehran is hearing new bomb blasts Saturday night, just as the Israel Defense Forces announced a new “wave of strikes” in the city. The Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency said US and Israeli bombing targeted an oil refinery in southern Tehran. Meanwhile, CNN crews heard what sounded like a wave of airstrikes and major explosions in the Iranian capital. The team also saw a large fire in the south of Tehran, in the area where oil and gas installations are located. It’s currently well past sundown in Tehran, and footage of the southern horizon showed a blaze clearly illuminating the night sky.CNN reports from Iran with the permission of the Iranian government.After a night of punishing airstrikes in Tehran, CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen has been meeting shopkeepers and residents who say they fear for their safety, but have little choice but to continue living as normally as possible:Smoke rises following explosions at an airfield, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Esfahan, Iran in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released on Saturday.A resident of the central Iranian city of Esfahan told CNN they’ve witnessed “horrible” bombing Saturday night local time. “It seems there is no air defense anymore,” the resident said. “Fighters fly over the city for a while and circle around several times. It is horrible. The whole sky turned and lit up.” “We heard a fighter jet sound for a minute, then very near fighter jet sound and got away from the windows,” they continued. “Just saw the flash light. It was a very powerful explosion.” Last night, the Israeli military said it struck Esfahan, which houses critical Iranian nuclear facilities. Residents there and in Tehran told CNN afterward that they had suffered through a night of intense bombardment.Buildings around Dubai’s Marina were evacuated Saturday after debris from projectile interceptions damaged the facade of a high-rise building in the Emirati city. Among the evacuees were CNN staff.The Marina is close to many tourist attractions and city institutions, including the American University of Dubai and the Dubai Marina Mall. As the sound of interceptions reverberated through the city and evacuations began, residents of Dubai and Abu Dhabi received warnings of incoming missiles on their cell phones. The strikes came shortly after the president of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, made extremely rare public comments describing Iran as “the enemy.” “The UAE is beautiful, the UAE is a model to be followed, but I tell you, do not be deceived by that,” he warned Tehran while visiting a hospital, which is treating civilians injured in the strikes. “The UAE’s hand can reach and is strong, its flesh is bitter, and we are not easy prey.”In the midst of war, Iranians are still dealing with the internet blackout limiting their access to loved ones, information and critical news. CNN's Leila Gharagozlou spoke to Iranians who have created networks of communications among themselves in an effort to work around the blackout.An Iranian flag is placed amidst rubble and debris next to a destroyed residential building near Ferdowsi square in Tehran on March 3.Even as they endure days of joint US-Israeli strikes, some Iranians remain most fearful of the country’s regime surviving this war. “The scariest thing for people is the continuation of the Islamic Republic,” a Tehran resident told CNN in a voice note. “The idea of sharing oxygen with these people, that is scariest.” “Someone told me the other day that they didn’t hear the bombs, and they felt sick at the thought of these attacks stopping without changing anything,” he said. “What if they abandon us? Think about how bad the situation is that we are all worried they’re going to not have our backs any more.”“A lot of people have left Tehran, and a lot of people haven’t for their own reasons,” the woman said by text message. “There are no cars out, no-one on the streets.”earlier this year, killing thousands in a matter of days. For some Iranians, the war has stirred hope that the regime, which swept to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, might fall. For pro-regime supporters, it has only deepened anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment, while others, who longed for regime change but never imagined it would come through foreign intervention, remain torn.There were more blasts heard in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates Saturday evening local time, despite a suggestion earlier in the day from Iran’s president that strikes across the Gulf would cease. There was a series of loud explosions in Bahrain, according to witnesses. It was not immediately clear whether they were caused by impacts or interceptions. Iran’s official Fars news agency claimed there were “massive explosions at US bases in Bahrain.” The Bahraini Ministry of the Interior later said inMeanwhile, CNN staff in Qatar reported a series of loud bangs, and teams in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital, reported at least three loud blasts. The UAE’s National Security Council posted on X that, “Air defense systems are currently responding to a missile threat,” advising people to “remain in a safe location.” Earlier Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized to Arab Gulf nations for the impact of Iranian drone and missile attacks targeting US bases and said Iran would stop striking its neighbors unless it came under attack. Pezeshkian’s office later issued an “explanation” that his message was clear: “if regional countries do not cooperate in America’s attack on us, we will not attack them.”The Trump administration has declared an emergency and bypassed Congress to immediately sell 12,000 bombs to Israel amid ongoing military operations against Iran. According to a notice from the US State Department, Israel requested to buy “twelve thousand BLU-110A/B general purpose, 1,000-pound bomb bodies,” valued at more than $151 million. Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to the Government of Israel of the above defense articles and defense services is in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements,” the The emergency declaration and expedited sale come as Israel and the United States continue their war against Iran. President Donald Trump on Saturday previewed a heavy new assault, saying, “Today Iran will be hit very hard!” “Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” he
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