U.S. Military Begins 'Major Combat Operations in Iran,' Trump Says

What Happened: Overview

The U.S. military begins "major combat operations in Iran," Trump says, marking the start of the largest American military offensive in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In a pre-dawn announcement on February 28, 2026, President Donald Trump confirmed that US forces had launched a sweeping campaign against Iran in coordination with Israel, targeting the country's ballistic missile infrastructure, nuclear program facilities, and military command centers across multiple Iranian cities. (NBC News)

The joint operation carries two codenames: the Pentagon designated the American component "Operation Epic Fury," while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Israel's parallel campaign "The Roar of the Lion." CBS News described the coordination as "unprecedented," reporting that weeks of joint planning preceded the strikes. (CBS News)

This is the second major US bombing campaign against Iran within eight months. In June 2025, Operation Midnight Hammer struck Iranian targets following a breakdown in nuclear negotiations. That earlier campaign, while significant, was more limited in scope than the February 2026 operation. The escalation from Midnight Hammer to Epic Fury reflects a pattern of deepening military commitment that analysts had warned about throughout the second half of 2025.

Within hours of the first strikes, Iran's armed forces launched retaliatory missile attacks against multiple US military installations across the Persian Gulf. Explosions were reported in downtown Tehran, with smoke rising from multiple locations across the capital. Internet connectivity inside Iran collapsed to approximately 4% of normal levels, according to internet monitoring organization Netblocks. Israel declared a nationwide state of emergency and closed its airspace to civilian flights. (Al Jazeera)

Trump's Announcement and Key Quotes

President Trump framed the strikes as a defensive necessity, stating that Iran could "never have a nuclear weapon" and describing the operation as eliminating "imminent threats." In his televised address, Trump declared: "All I want is freedom for the people. I want a safe nation, and that's what we're going to have." (CBS News)

Trump referenced Iran's 1979 embassy hostage crisis, in which 52 American diplomats were held for 444 days, framing the current operation as part of a long arc of American confrontation with Tehran. He also blamed Iran's proxy Hamas for the October 7 attacks on Israel, drawing a direct line from Iran's regional influence network to the justification for military action. (NBC News)

The president acknowledged the possibility of American casualties, a notable departure from previous statements that had emphasized the precision and limited risk of US operations against Iran. Trump stated that Iran would "soon" possess intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, though NBC News noted that the Defense Intelligence Agency's own assessment placed that timeline at 2035 if Iran pursued such a program. (NBC News)

Netanyahu's Statement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the joint operation in terms that went beyond nuclear containment, stating that the strikes would "create conditions for the courageous Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands." This language was widely interpreted as signaling regime change objectives, a framing that drew immediate criticism from congressional opponents who argued the operation exceeded its stated mandate. (NBC News)

Operation Epic Fury and The Roar of the Lion

The military operation reflected a clear division of labor between the two allies. According to CBS News, the US component focused on Iran's ballistic missile infrastructure and nuclear program facilities, while Israel concentrated its strikes on Iranian leadership targets, including the locations of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian. (CBS News)

An Israeli military official cited intelligence indicating an "acceleration of Iran's ballistic missile program" as the immediate justification for the timing of the strikes. Iran's ballistic missile arsenal was estimated at "high hundreds to low thousands" of missiles, making it one of the largest such arsenals in the Middle East. The operation was described by CBS News as involving "unprecedented coordination" between US and Israeli forces, with weeks of joint planning preceding the launch. (CBS News)

The Pentagon's choice of the codename "Epic Fury" signaled the scale of ambition behind the US component. Previous operations against Iran, including the June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer, had been more narrowly scoped. The expansion from targeted strikes to what Trump publicly called "major combat operations" represented a qualitative shift in the American military posture toward Iran.

NBC News reported that Trump's characterization of Iran's ICBM threat diverged from intelligence community assessments. While the president stated Iran would "soon" possess ICBMs capable of reaching the United States, the Defense Intelligence Agency assessed that Iran could realistically develop such capability by 2035 if it chose to pursue that path, a timeline more than eight years away. (NBC News)

Targets Hit Across Iran

Al Jazeera reported multiple explosions heard in downtown Tehran, with smoke visible rising from various locations across the capital. Blasts were also reported across several other cities throughout the country, indicating a geographically dispersed strike campaign rather than a concentrated attack on a single target set. (Al Jazeera)

US Target Set: Missiles and Nuclear Infrastructure

The American strikes focused on two categories of targets. First, Iran's ballistic missile program infrastructure, including production facilities, storage sites, and launch platforms associated with the country's arsenal of "high hundreds to low thousands" of missiles. Second, nuclear program facilities, continuing the campaign begun during Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 to degrade Iran's nuclear enrichment and weapons development capabilities. (CBS News)

Israeli Target Set: Leadership Decapitation

Israel's strikes pursued a more politically ambitious objective: targeting Iran's senior leadership. Both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were among the initial strike targets. Iranian state media quickly asserted that both leaders were "safe and sound" following the attacks, though independent verification of their status was not immediately possible given the near-total internet blackout inside Iran. (CBS News, Al Jazeera)

The decision to target political leadership rather than exclusively military infrastructure marked a significant escalation beyond previous operations and aligned with Netanyahu's stated goal of creating conditions for the Iranian people to "take their destiny into their own hands."

Iranian Retaliation: Missiles at US Bases

Iran's armed forces launched retaliatory strikes within hours of the initial US-Israeli attack, targeting American military installations across the Persian Gulf in what represented the most significant direct attack on US forces since the 2020 Ain al-Asad strike in Iraq. Iran's Supreme National Security Council promised a "crushing response" to the attacks, while the Foreign Ministry declared that "the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond to the aggressors with authority." (NBC News, CBS News)

US Bases Targeted

Iran launched ballistic missiles at multiple US military facilities across the region:

• Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar — the largest US air base in the Middle East, home to the Combined Air Operations Center that coordinates all US air operations in the region
• Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait — a key logistics and staging hub for US operations in the Persian Gulf
• Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE — home to US Air Force fighter and reconnaissance aircraft
• US Fifth Fleet Headquarters, Bahrain — the command center for US naval operations across the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Red Sea
• US facilities in Jordan — additional military installations targeted in the broader retaliatory campaign

(NBC News)

Additional Retaliatory Actions

Beyond the strikes on US bases, Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes toward Israel. Al Jazeera reported that a missile was intercepted in Qatar, and an explosion was reported in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Bahrain reported a missile attack specifically targeting the US Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters. (Al Jazeera)

Multiple Gulf nations activated their air defense systems and intercepted Iranian missiles. The geographic spread of the retaliation, spanning at least five countries, underscored the regional nature of the conflict and the exposure of US forces stationed throughout the Persian Gulf.

Casualties and Damage Assessment

Initial casualty reports remained limited in the hours following the strikes, complicated by the near-total internet blackout inside Iran and the fog of an active military operation across multiple countries.

One death was reported in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from falling debris associated with the Iranian missile strikes. No American casualties were reported in the initial hours of the operation, though Trump had acknowledged the possibility of US losses during his announcement. Damage to infrastructure in Bahrain was noted but the full extent remained unclear. (NBC News)

No significant Israeli hits from Iranian counterattacks were initially reported, suggesting that Israel's multi-layered missile defense system, including the Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Arrow systems, may have intercepted the bulk of incoming projectiles. (CBS News)

Inside Iran, the government closed schools and universities while keeping banks open, a decision that suggested authorities were attempting to project stability even as military operations continued. The full scale of Iranian casualties from the US-Israeli strikes was not immediately known, as the internet blackout and media restrictions made independent reporting from inside Iran nearly impossible.

Congressional Reaction: Bipartisan Split

The announcement that the U.S. military had begun major combat operations in Iran triggered an immediate and deeply divided response in Congress, cutting across traditional party lines in ways that reflected the complexity of the political moment.

Opposition

Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky condemned the strikes as unauthorized by Congress, arguing that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority by launching what amounted to a war without legislative approval. The War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and sets a 60-day limit on deployments without congressional authorization. (NBC News)

Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona offered one of the sharpest critiques, warning: "Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change." His statement directly challenged Netanyahu's framing of the operation as creating conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow their government, identifying the gap between stated objectives and the human cost of achieving them. (CBS News)

Support

Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, expressed support for the strikes, continuing his consistent backing of military action against Iran. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called the operation "necessary and long justified," framing it as a response to decades of Iranian aggression and proxy warfare. (NBC News, CBS News)

The bipartisan split, with opposition from both a libertarian-leaning Republican (Massie) and a progressive Democrat (Gallego), alongside support from both a centrist Democrat (Fetterman) and a hawkish Republican (Graham), defied simple partisan categorization and reflected the genuine ideological divisions the Iran question creates within both parties.

International Response

International reaction to the strikes reflected the global stakes of the operation, with key allies offering qualified support while the broader international community expressed alarm at the escalation.

Australia's Prime Minister expressed support for the strikes, framing them as necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Australian government's backing aligned Canberra with the US-Israeli position and represented one of the few explicit endorsements from a Western ally in the immediate aftermath. (CBS News)

Airspace Closures and Aviation Disruption

Multiple countries across the region closed their airspace in response to the strikes and Iranian retaliation. Iranian, Israeli, and Iraqi airspace were all shut down to civilian traffic. Major airlines canceled regional flights as missile trajectories crossed commercial aviation corridors. The FAA issued NOTAMs (Notices to Air Missions) restricting US carrier flights in affected airspace. (Al Jazeera, CBS News)

Embassy Alerts

Multiple US embassies across the Middle East issued shelter-in-place orders for American citizens in the region, reflecting the geographic breadth of the conflict zone and the retaliatory missile strikes reaching across the Persian Gulf. The US Embassy in Jerusalem issued specific shelter-in-place instructions as Israel braced for Iranian missile and drone attacks. (CBS News)

Diplomatic Context: Israel Preempted Diplomacy

Perhaps the most consequential revelation in the initial reporting came from a Middle East diplomat who told NBC News that Israel had "intervened to preempt diplomacy" at a moment when negotiations between the US and Iran appeared close to producing results. This claim, if accurate, suggests that the military operation was launched not because diplomacy had failed but because it was on the verge of succeeding in ways that Israel found unacceptable. (NBC News)

The diplomatic preemption claim carries enormous implications. It suggests a fundamental divergence between US diplomatic objectives, which at least nominally included a negotiated resolution to the nuclear standoff, and Israeli strategic objectives, which have consistently favored military action over diplomatic accommodation. If Israel accelerated the timeline for strikes specifically to prevent a diplomatic breakthrough, it would represent one of the most consequential acts of allied influence on American foreign policy in modern history.

The Oman channel, which had served as a backchannel for US-Iran negotiations for over two decades, appeared to have been the venue for the negotiations that the diplomat referenced. Whether the Trump administration was a willing participant in the diplomatic sabotage or was presented with a fait accompli by Israeli action remains an open question that will likely be the subject of congressional inquiry.

Historical Context: From Midnight Hammer to Epic Fury

Operation Epic Fury represents the second major US military campaign against Iran within eight months, following Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025. The escalation from a targeted strike campaign to what the president himself called "major combat operations" traces a trajectory that many analysts had warned was inevitable once the initial military threshold was crossed.

Operation Midnight Hammer (June 2025)

The June 2025 strikes targeted Iranian nuclear facilities following the collapse of diplomatic negotiations and Iran's acceleration of uranium enrichment activities. While that operation caused significant damage to above-ground nuclear infrastructure, it failed to eliminate Iran's enrichment capability, particularly at the deeply buried Fordow facility. Iran's retaliatory missile salvo against Al Udeid Air Base in the aftermath demonstrated both the limits of preemptive strikes and the escalatory risks of military action. (NBC News)

Trump's Historical References

In his announcement of Epic Fury, Trump drew direct historical lines from the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, during which 52 American diplomats were held captive for 444 days following the Islamic Revolution, to the current operation. He also cited Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, attributing them to Iranian support for the Palestinian militant group as part of Tehran's network of regional proxies. These references served to frame the strikes not as a new conflict but as the culmination of decades of unresolved confrontation between the United States and the Islamic Republic. (NBC News)

Escalation Pattern

The progression from Midnight Hammer's targeted strike package to Epic Fury's "major combat operations" followed a pattern that defense analysts had identified as a key risk: each military exchange raised the baseline for the next round. Iran's retaliatory capabilities, far from being degraded by the June 2025 strikes, appeared to have been maintained or even expanded, as evidenced by the scale and geographic reach of the February 2026 counter-strikes across five countries.

Internet Blackout and Emergency Measures

Internet connectivity inside Iran collapsed to approximately 4% of normal levels, according to data from Netblocks, the internet monitoring organization. The near-total blackout, whether caused by infrastructure damage from strikes or deliberate government shutdown, effectively cut off 88 million Iranians from the outside world and made independent reporting on conditions inside the country nearly impossible. (NBC News)

Emergency Measures

The Iranian government ordered the closure of schools and universities across the country, while notably keeping banks open in an apparent effort to signal economic stability and prevent financial panic. The decision to maintain banking operations during an active military campaign represented an unusual wartime calculation, prioritizing economic continuity over civilian shelter. (NBC News)

Israel declared a nationwide state of emergency, closing its airspace to all civilian flights and activating its multi-layered missile defense network. The US Embassy in Jerusalem issued shelter-in-place orders for all American citizens. Gulf states that hosted US military bases, now direct targets of Iranian retaliation, activated their own emergency protocols as missiles struck or were intercepted over their territory. (Al Jazeera)

What Reddit and Social Media Are Saying

News that the U.S. military begins major combat operations in Iran dominated social media and online discussion platforms within minutes of Trump's announcement, with Reddit communities providing some of the most detailed real-time analysis and emotional reactions to the unfolding crisis.

r/worldnews

Reddit's largest news community, r/worldnews, saw megathreads reach tens of thousands of comments within the first hours. Users shared real-time flight tracking data showing all commercial aviation abruptly rerouting around Iranian and Iraqi airspace, one of the earliest open-source indicators that the strikes had begun. Detailed breakdowns of the military hardware deployed, comparisons between Operation Epic Fury and Operation Midnight Hammer's scope, and debates over congressional authorization dominated the threads. Many users drew direct parallels to the 2003 Iraq War, questioning the intelligence claims used to justify the operation. (Reddit Discussion Analysis)

r/geopolitics

The r/geopolitics community focused on strategic implications of the "major combat operations" designation. Users analyzed whether Trump's language constituted a legal declaration of war, debated the DIA intelligence assessment discrepancy (2035 vs. "soon" for ICBM capability), and evaluated the diplomatic preemption claim reported by NBC. Threads examining the difference between regime change and nuclear containment as operational objectives drew extensive analysis, with many users arguing that Netanyahu's stated goals contradicted the Pentagon's stated mission.

Financial Subreddits

On r/wallstreetbets and r/investing, discussion centered on oil price movements, defense contractor stock performance (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman), and the economic implications of sustained military operations near the Strait of Hormuz. Users tracked overnight futures showing crude oil surging and debated hedging strategies against energy-driven inflation.

Broader Social Media

On X (formerly Twitter), hashtags including #OperationEpicFury, #IranStrikes, and #MajorCombatOperations trended worldwide. Video clips purporting to show explosions over Tehran circulated rapidly, though verification remained difficult given the internet blackout inside Iran. Independent analysis platforms compiled real-time timelines from open-source intelligence, social media posts from inside Iran, and official government statements from both sides.

Common themes emerging from the online discourse include:

• Concern about the "major combat operations" designation implying a sustained war rather than limited strikes
• Debate over whether Congress should invoke the War Powers Resolution to constrain or authorize the operation
• Alarm about the diplomatic preemption claim and what it reveals about US-Israeli decision-making
• Analysis of Iranian retaliatory capabilities and escalation scenarios including Strait of Hormuz closure
• Comparisons to the 2003 Iraq War and skepticism of intelligence claims justifying preemptive action
• Questions about oil prices, economic impact, and potential for a global recession driven by energy disruption

What Happens Next

The announcement that the U.S. military has begun major combat operations in Iran sets in motion a chain of events whose outcome remains deeply uncertain. Based on the available evidence and historical precedent, several scenarios and key variables will shape the days and weeks ahead.

Congressional War Powers

Under the War Powers Resolution, the president must notify Congress within 48 hours and has a 60-day window before requiring legislative authorization to continue operations. Given the bipartisan opposition already voiced by figures like Rep. Massie and Sen. Gallego, a war powers vote is likely, though the political dynamics in both chambers make the outcome difficult to predict. A detailed analysis of the War Powers timeline is available.

Iranian Escalation Options

Iran retains significant retaliatory capabilities beyond the initial missile strikes. These include potential closure or mining of the Strait of Hormuz, activation of regional proxy networks (Hezbollah, Houthis, Iraqi militias), cyber operations against US critical infrastructure, and further missile salvos against US bases and Israeli territory. The scale of the initial Iranian retaliation across five countries suggests Tehran is willing to absorb significant risk to demonstrate deterrent capability.

Nuclear Breakout Risk

One of the most consequential unknowns is whether the strikes will delay or accelerate Iran's path to a nuclear weapon. With IAEA access already severely limited, the international community has reduced visibility into Iran's nuclear activities. If Iran's parliament follows through on draft legislation to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the last international oversight mechanisms would be removed.

Variables to Watch

• Whether the "major combat operations" designation leads to sustained military campaign or limited strikes followed by off-ramp negotiations
• The scale and duration of Iranian retaliatory operations beyond the initial salvo
• Oil price movements and potential Strait of Hormuz disruption
• Congressional action on War Powers Resolution
• Status of Iranian leadership (Khamenei, Pezeshkian) as independent reporting becomes possible
• Activation of Hezbollah, Houthi, or Iraqi militia proxy networks

Related Coverage

• US Strikes Iran: Full Timeline, Targets, and Global Impact
• US and Israel Launch Strikes on Iran: Operation Shield of Judah
• Iran Response to US Strikes: Missiles, Diplomacy, and What Comes Next
• Iran Retaliates Against US Bases: Which Facilities Were Targeted
• War Powers and Iran Strikes: What Congress Can Do, and On What Timeline
• Operation Midnight Hammer: What the Public Record Says About Damage and Limits

Sources

Last updated: February 28, 2026. This article is revised when new evidence materially changes what can be stated with confidence.