The US and Israel launched an attack of unprecedented scale against Iran on Saturday, reportedly killing more than 200 people, with Tehran launching a retaliatory missile barrage that sent people running for cover across the Middle East.Iranian authorities urged residents to evacuate the capital, a city of 10 million, while the country’s Red Crescent society said that in addition to the 201 dead, more than 700 people were wounded.The Iranian judiciary said one attack that hit a school in the south killed 85 people, although AFP was unable to access the site in order to verify the toll.Meanwhile, the UAE reported one civilian dead and damage from missiles in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as blasts from Tehran’s retaliatory salvo and air defences intercepting it also echoed over Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait. In weeks of sabre-rattling leading up to the strikes, Tehran had repeatedly vowed to retaliate fiercely if attacked, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi argued on Saturday that US and Israeli installations involved in the operation were “legitimate targets”.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards radioed ships to say the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway, was shut, according to the EU’s naval mission.Plumes of black smoke hung over Tehran, including in the Pasteur district, home to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Israel’s public broadcaster, citing an Israeli source, reported Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian had been targeted.But Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei was alive “as far as I know”, adding that “all high ranking officials are alive”. Asked about Khamenei’s health, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei told the BBC he was “not in a situation to confirm anything”, but “the whole system, the whole nation is focused on defending (our) national integrity”.An Israeli military official said several senior figures were “eliminated” in strikes on gatherings of Iranian officials.- ‘Barbaric’ -Tehran residents had been going about their usual business when the strikes began. Security forces quickly flooded the streets, shops pulled down their shutters and few pedestrians risked venturing out, an AFP journalist saw. “I saw with my own eyes two Tomahawk missiles flying horizontally toward targets,” a Tehran office worker told AFP before communications and internet access were cut. The Red Crescent said 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces were affected by the strikes. Pezeshkian decried the deadly attack on the girls’ school in the south as a “barbaric act”.Across Israel, city streets stood deserted as residents took cover in shelters while the blasts of intercepted Iranian missiles reverberated overhead. Emergency services reported two people injured.- ‘Eliminating imminent threats’ -The attacks came after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration at Iran’s stance in negotiations over its nuclear and missile programmes.Trump said Washington’s goal was “eliminating imminent threats” from Iran, while Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was to remove an “existential threat”.”We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” Trump said.He also told Iranians the “hour of your freedom is at hand”, urging them to rise up and “take over your government”.It was the first US military action of this scale apparently aimed at toppling a foreign government since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Netanyahu echoed Trump’s call, telling Iranians that the time had come to “cast off the yoke of tyranny”.Israel’s army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said the operation was “taking place at a completely different scale” than the 12-day war it fought against Iran in June, which the US briefly joined. “Since this morning, approximately 200 fighter jets… completed an extensive attack against the missile array and the defence systems of the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran. This is the largest military air raid in the history of the Israeli Air Force,” a military statement said.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said their “missiles and drones have struck the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and other American bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as military and security centres in the heart of the occupied territories (Israel)”.Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, the UAE and Israel all closed their airspaces to civilian traffic, at least in part, and multiple airlines cancelled flights to the Middle East. – Blasts across Gulf -Residents and AFP correspondents in the Emirati, Qatari and Bahraini capitals heard multiple rounds of explosions from Iran’s retaliatory strikes.In Qatar, people fled in panic as a falling missile plunged into a residential neighbourhood, erupting in a fireball as it hit the street.And in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital, golfers were stunned to see dozens of projectiles flying overhead. In Bahrain’s capital Manama, residents were hurriedly evacuated from the Juffair district housing the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “When we heard the sounds, we cried out of fear,” said Jana Hassan, a 15-year-old student who was in the area. “I will never forget the sound of those loud blasts.” Two witnesses told AFP they heard an explosion and saw a plume of smoke rising from Dubai’s famed man-made island The Palm, with authorities reporting four injured.The foreign ministry of Oman, a mediator in recent US-Iran talks, called “on all parties to immediately cease military operations” and urged the UN Security Council to impose a ceasefire.burs/ser/smw

On a visit to Texas on Friday, US President Donald Trump gave a raucous speech on the economy and then stopped off at a fast food joint.”Hamburgers for everyone!” Trump declared to cheering customers at the Whataburger restaurant in Corpus Christi, before the 47th president left clutching a bag with the order number 47.Nine hours later, in the dead of night, Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that he had ordered the start of a major attack against Iran. It was the culmination of a series of feints and bluffs in the preceding hours and days as the former reality TV star kept the world guessing.The smokescreen even featured daily schedules that appeared to leave time for weekend golf games, and announcements of meetings for his senior officials.Perhaps the weekend at Mar-a-Lago should have been the giveaway. It was, after all, from his weekend getaway that Trump also launched the toppling of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January, instead of from the White House.But while the massive US military build-up in the Middle East had made military action look all but certain, the 79-year-old Republican repeatedly gave conflicting signals.- Business as usual? -Speculation had mounted that he might use the first State of the Union speech of his second term, before Congress on Tuesday, to announce an attack.His eventual remarks called for a diplomatic solution — but also set out the case for war, including the contention that Iran was developing missiles capable of hitting the US homeland.The mixed messages kept coming after US and Iranian officials met in Geneva on Thursday.Across the Trump administration, every effort was made to project a business-as-usual look.The White House issued Trump’s schedule for the weekend, containing his Texas trip followed by a weekend at Mar-a-Lago, featuring a “Make America Great Again” fundraising dinner.The largely empty schedule appeared to leave plenty of spare time — much of which would, on a normal weekend, be filled by Trump playing golf at his nearby club.The US State Department announced on Friday that Marco Rubio would hold talks in Monday in Israel, leading some observers to conclude this meant any potential strike would be held off at least until afterwards.The only glitch in the matrix: Rubio was not planning to bring any reporters on his plane, in a rare break with decades of precedent for US secretaries of state.Vice President JD Vance meanwhile met with the foreign minister of Oman, a key mediator between the US and Iran, in what was seen as another signal that Washington was ready to give the talks a chance.- ‘Greatest scoop in history’ -But in retrospect it was a matter of when, not if.As he left the White House on Friday, Trump said he had not yet made a decision but was “not happy” with Iran’s response, and he seemed less happy with Tehran as the day wore on.In Texas, in a speech ahead of November’s midterm elections for which he was accompanied by the actor Dennis Quaid, Trump talked about how much oil he said the United States was getting from Venezuela — and then about the “very difficult decision” ahead on Iran. Asked how close he was to making a decision on strikes, he told reporters: “I’d rather not tell you. You would have the greatest scoop in history, right?”Just how close Trump was to making a decision would finally become clear at 2:30 am. “A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran,” said Trump, sporting the same white USA hat he was seen wearing when he arrived in Florida.As with the Venezuela operation, Trump monitored the US attacks overnight from Mar-a-Lago along with his top national security officials, the White House said. Rubio was there with him on Saturday, the State Department confirmed, while Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and top military officer Dan Caine were reportedly also in attendence.Once again, America had gone to war from Trump’s holiday home.