US-Iran war highlights: Dubai, Abu Dhabi attacked, American naval forces hit. Check latest updates

The United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, targeting its top leaders and calling for the overthrow of its government, while Iran responded with missiles fired at Israel and neighbouring Gulf countries. President Donald Trump, who in the biggest foreign-policy gamble of his presidency launched the war against a foe Washington has jousted with for generations, said the strikes were aimed at ending a security threat and ensuring Iran could not develop a nuclear weapon. He called on Iranian security forces to lay down their weapons and invited Iranians to topple their government once the bombing ended. Tehran called the strikes, which began in the morning hours and hit targets in different areas of the country, unprovoked and illegal. Iran's Al-Alam television said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - yet to be heard from by Saturday evening - was due to give a speech soon.

Iran-Israel War

Iran responded to the strikes by launching missiles at Israel and at several Gulf Arab allies of the United States that host American bases and global airlines ‌cancelled flights across the Middle East.


Iran also ⁠issued a ⁠warning to shipping that the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage through which around a fifth of global oil consumption passes, had been closed. Traders expected a sharp jump in oil prices.

Tehran promised a stronger response to come, with a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Ebrahim Jabbari, saying it had so far used only "scrap missiles" and would soon unveil unforeseen ​weapons, state television reported.

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council was due to meet in New York on Saturday. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Israel's military said its pilots hit hundreds of targets throughout Iran including strategic defence systems already damaged in strikes last year. ​It said three sites where leaders had been meeting were struck simultaneously, and several senior figures were killed.

Iran's Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour were killed in the Israeli attacks, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Operation Epic Fury

Explosions rang out in nearby oil-producing Gulf Arab countries, which said they had intercepted missiles after Tehran warned it would strike the region if it was attacked.

The first wave of strikes in what the Pentagon named "OPERATION EPIC FURY" mainly targeted Iranian officials, a source familiar with the matter said.

An Israeli official said ​Khamenei and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian were both targeted but the result of the strikes was not clear. A source with knowledge of the matter had earlier told Reuters that Khamenei ⁠was not ‌in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location.

An Iranian source close to the establishment said several senior commanders in Iran's Revolutionary Guards and political officials had been killed.

In addition, a girls' primary school in the ​southern Iranian town of Minab was also hit, ​killing 85 people, according to the local prosecutor cited by state media. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran, the third largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumps about 4 per cent of global oil supplies, and a far larger share is shipped past its coast through the strait leading out of the Gulf.

Iran's ​Revolutionary Guards said all U.S. bases and interests in the region were within Iran's reach and that Iran's retaliation would continue until "the enemy is decisively defeated".

In Israel, sirens and mobile phone warnings sent Israelis rushing to air raid shelters as Iran launched a series of missile barrages. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.

Dubai-Abu Dhabi Attacked

Loud booms sounded in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, an oil producer and close U.S. ally, and several blasts were heard in the business capital Dubai, where one of the city's plush hotel districts was also hit.

Nada AlGarhy, 30, said that she and her husband had been at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Dubai's luxury Palm development for Iftar, the evening meal during the fasting month of Ramadan, when they heard a loud explosion.

Bahrain said the service centre of the U.S. Fifth Fleet - base for American naval forces in the region - had been subjected to a missile attack. Video footage showed a thick grey plume of smoke rising from near the island state's coastline.

Qatar said it had downed all missiles targeting the country and that it had a right to respond. Kuwait confirmed a missile attack on a U.S. military base there.