Published on •Updated
Explosions sent up clouds of dark smoke in the Iranian capital early on Saturday and Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel as the United States warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign that officials said would be the most intense yet in the weeklong conflict.
Video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising over western Tehran as Israel said it had begun a broad wave of strikes.
Also early on Saturday, loud booms sounded in Jerusalem and incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel.
In a sign of the widening nature of the conflict, sirens sounded on Saturday morning in Bahrain as Iranian attacks targeted the island kingdom.
And Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US forces.
The US and Israel have battered Iran with strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear programme.
The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shifted, as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership from within.
‘Biggest bombing’ is coming, Bessent says
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a television interview that the “biggest bombing campaign” of the war was still to come.
Israel has said that over the past week it has heavily bombed an extensive underground bunker that Iranian leaders had planned to use during the hostilities.
There is no foreseeable end to the fighting and the Trump administration approved a new $151 million (€129 million) arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without its “unconditional surrender.”
And in a social media post on Friday, Trump said “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
After a surrender, “and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s),” he wrote, the US and its allies will help rebuild Iran, making it “economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”
Those comments were likely to raise further questions about the endgame of the war. The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media that “some countries” had begun mediation efforts, without elaborating.
Trump has also told media outlets that he should be involved in choosing a replacement for former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes of the war.
Trump spoke dismissively of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a front-runner to replace his father, calling him “a lightweight.”
Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, condemned Trump’s statement and said Iran “does not accept and will never allow any foreign power to interfere in its internal affairs.”
Iranian state television reported on Friday that a leadership council had started discussing how to convene the country’s Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader.
Additional sources • AP