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“War is no good but it’s better than the regime killing our children,” said a 39-year-old Iranian in Istanbul, saying he was “happy” US and Israeli warplanes were attacking Iran. Like many Iranians exiled to neighbouring Turkey, Reza, who did not want to give his surname, has been glued to his phone since news broke that Israel and the United States had begun air strikes on Iran. Despite worrying about their families, most exiles in Turkey’s largest city told AFP they were happy with the strikes, which US President Donald Trump had threatened in January over Iran’s protest crackdown that left thousands dead.”America is attacking the military bases, the people who 40 days ago were killing our children, so they are helping us. This war is no good, people will die, but I’m happy,” Reza, a mature student, told AFP.Ali, a film director who like almost all the Iranians interviewed by AFP did not give his surname, agreed.”Now people in Iran are full of hope and they are very, very happy,” Ali said. “Iranians have been counting the minutes until America came to destroy the regime.”Over the past few weeks, Trump has sent warships and dozens of fighter planes to the Middle East, raising fears of a US strike — even as US and Iranians diplomats held indirect talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. But early on Saturday, the tensions came to a head as Israeli and US warplanes began hitting targets in Iran, with Trump urging Iranians to stand up to their government and telling them: “The hour of your freedom is at hand.”Turkey, which shares a 500-kilometre (300-mile) border with Iran, currently hosts more than 74,000 Iranians with residence permits and some 5,000 refugees.While the unrest has raised fears of an influx of people, there have been no reports of unusual activity at the Turkey-Iran border so far. – ‘Difficult days ahead’ -“I’m both worried and happy, hoping for Iran’s freedom,” said Sepideh, a former teacher, who told AFP she managed to speak to a few friends in the morning, despite Iran cutting off all internet access.Even with the internet shutdown, Mehdi, an engineer from the northern Iranian city of Tabriz, said he had managed to reach his family on Friday night. “Everyone was aware of the possibility of war, so they have been saving fuel and storing enough food. They are planning to move to rural areas,” he said.”We never wanted war in our country. It is the mullahs’ brutal theocracy that has put us in this situation,” he said. “We don’t support Trump or Israel either, we want freedom and democracy, but this will not come easily. There will be very difficult days ahead, but Iran will get through this period. We will survive.”Some are hoping the strikes will bring people back on the streets in another show of mass protest that could ultimately bring down Iran’s authoritarian government. “People are full of anger — many thousands of people died in the protests and they are waiting like a wolf for an opportunity for revenge. This is their best chance,” said Reza. Others are already looking to a future when the country will begin a transition to democracy — with some putting their hopes in Reza Pahlavi, the exiled eldest son of Iran’s last shah, who rose to prominence during the recent protests. “Every Iranian is ready: as soon as Prince Reza Pahlavi gives the order that we can return, we won’t stay away a minute longer,” said Amir Hossein, a singer from Tehran. “We will all come back to build a magnificent Iran.”- European diaspora -Members of the diaspora across Europe came together to express solidarity with their people.Around 20 people demonstrated outside the Iranian embassy in Brussels, with some holding Iran’s pre-Islamic revolution flag — now a symbol of opposition to the current leadership.In London, some 300 people gathered with US flags outside the prime minister’s residence and offices, with more joining the march as it moved toward the Iranian embassy, an AFP reporter observed.Bita, a member of the Stage of Freedom group that organised the protest, hailed an “incredibly positive” mood inside Iran.”The people of Iran have been willing this, have been calling for this… ultimately they will bring about the regime change they want that will benefit not only Iran, not only the Middle East, but the West,” Bita said.A small anti-war protest was meanwhile attended by a few dozen people, who shouted “Hands off Iran” and “Stop killing children”.In Berlin, a rally in front of the Iranian embassy denounced both the government and the Shah’s son, calling for “Neither monarchy nor the mullahs’ dictatorship” but “democracy, equality”.

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.

The United States and Israel launched what the latter called a “decisive and unprecedented” campaign against Iran, which retaliated with a barrage of missiles that sent residents running for cover on Saturday in cities across the Middle East.Iranian authorities sent text messages urging residents to evacuate the capital — a city of 10 million — and a strike on a school in southern Iran killed 85 people, the judiciary said, although AFP was unable to access the site in order to verify the toll.Meanwhile, the UAE reported missile damage in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and one civilian dead in an Iranian attack, as blasts from air defences and Tehran’s missile salvo also echoed over Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait — as well as Israel. 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 around the region involved in the operation were “legitimate targets”. Plumes of black smoke hung over Tehran, including in the Pasteur district, site of the home of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and there was a huge security deployment in the capital.”Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were among the targets of the attack,” Israel’s public broadcaster reported, citing an Israeli source.But Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei was alive “as far as I know”, adding that “all high ranking officials are alive”. An Israeli military official said several senior figures were “eliminated” in strikes on gatherings of Iranian officials.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, a step authorities typically take during periods of heightened tension. More than 20 of Iran’s 31 provinces were affected by the strikes, the country’s Red Crescent Society said. Pezeshkian decried the deadly attack on the girls’ school in the south, calling it 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, warning of possible US casualties.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. “We now face a significant, decisive and unprecedented operation to dismantle the capabilities of the Iranian terrorist regime,” he later said in a televised statement.The army said it had completed a “broad strike” against Iran’s defence systems, and was now “currently striking missile launchers in Iran to thwart the threat posed to the State of Israel”.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said: “The IRGC’s 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), with severe blows.”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 United Arab Emirates’ capital, golfers enjoying a quiet round 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 visiting a friend 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 as authorities reported four injured.The foreign ministry of Oman, a mediator in recent US-Iran talks, called “on all parties to immediately cease military operations and urges the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency meeting to impose a ceasefire”.burs/smw/dc

Launching a major attack alongside Israel against Iran, US President Donald Trump is openly pursuing the goal he once adamantly rejected — regime change.Trump, who ordered a military buildup in the Middle East unseen since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, made clear in a video address that the goal of the bombing campaign dubbed “Epic Fury” was to topple the cleric-run state that has long been a US nemesis.Trump, who had publicly suggested for weeks a more limited goal of forcing a deal to end Tehran’s contested nuclear program, said to Iranians: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.””This will be, probably, your only chance for generations,” Trump said. “The hour of your freedom is at hand.”Indicating coordination, the son of Iran’s late pro-Western shah, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution, released his own address at the same time in which he called on Iranians to be patient and wait for his call to take to the streets “for the final action.”While there are differences between the two situations, Trump’s language evoked that of president George W. Bush when he invaded Iraq in 2003, with talk of the need for pre-emptive action and pointing to disputed weapons allegations to justify overthrowing a government.Trump himself said that the Iraq war was a historic mistake by Bush, who spent much more time than Trump laying out his case for war to the public.”In the end, the so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves,” Trump said in a speech last year in Saudi Arabia, now being hit by Iranian counter-attacks.Trump campaigned billing himself as the peace candidate and has loudly said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for assorted US mediation drives around the world. His close aide Stephen Miller in social media posts during the 2024 campaign charged that “millions die” if rival Kamala Harris wins.”Trump said warmongering neocons love sending your kids to die for wars they would never fight themselves,” Miller wrote, posting: “Kamala = WWIII. Trump = Peace.”In December, the Trump administration released a national security strategy that called for the United States to address threats in the Middle East “without decades of fruitless ‘nation-building’ wars.”- Changing equation in Iran -Much has changed in Iran since Trump’s earlier statements.Mass demonstrations, initially triggered by concerns over the cost of living, started building in late December and posed the greatest threat ever to the Islamic republic.Authorities crushed the demonstrations ruthlessly, with thousands of people killed.Trump also showed a willingness to use force in Venezuela, ordering a January 3 attack in which US forces snatched leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.But Trump’s previous operations have been one-off strikes that he has quickly framed as victories.In Venezuela, Trump has worked with Maduro’s vice president and successor Delcy Rodriguez, threatening her with violence if she does not cooperate, rather than seeking to install the democratic opposition long supported by Washington.Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former staunch Trump ally who resigned from Congress after falling out with him, said Trump was no different from previous presidents in launching “another foreign war for foreign people for foreign regime change.””But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said, no more,” she wrote on social media.Brandan Buck, a research fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that Trump, in urging the downfall of the Islamic republic, had offered “no clear conception of victory.””Instead, the President is repeating the same pattern of strategic self-deceit that has ensnared his predecessors — promising limited action while inviting prolonged conflict.”Most Republicans lined up to support the attack, with many issuing calls for freedom and democracy more reminiscent of Bush than Trump.Republican Senator John Cornyn said that Iran’s government has carried out an “all-out assault on the West and our values” and voiced hope that through Trump’s actions Iranians “will finally be free.”

Two witnesses told AFP they heard an explosion and saw a plume of smoke rising from Dubai’s famed man-made island The Palm as authorities reported four injured.The attack came as Iran carried out retaliatory strikes in the oil-rich Gulf following US and Israeli attacks — rattling a region long seen as a haven of peace and security.One of the witnesses said he saw thick black smoke rising from a hotel on the Palm and heard ambulances rushing towards the scene. The Dubai media office later confirmed an “incident” in a building in the Palm Jumeirah area that resulted in a fire and four people injured.”Dubai Civil Defence has confirmed that the resulting fire is now under control. Four individuals sustained injuries and have been transferred to medical facilities,” it added.The incident targeting a Dubai landmark shocked residents, and was followed by several bangs heard by Dubai residents and AFP correspondents in the city.Roughly 90 percent of the UAE’s population consists of foreigners and Dubai is its most populated city, long associated with opulence and glamour.Iran launched strikes on all the oil-rich Gulf countries except for Oman, a mediator in the US-Iran talks.

For weeks, Iranians had been nervously anticipating another attack by the United States and Israel, despite Tehran and Washington holding negotiations aimed at averting a violent showdown.Nevertheless, on Saturday morning just before the strikes, life in Tehran was moving at its usual pace, taxis and buses were inching through mid-morning traffic and people were running errands.Then the routine was shattered by a series of detonations. Security forces flooded the streets and dark columns of smoke rose near the home of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”I am hearing explosions and fighter jets overhead,” one resident of central Tehran said at around 9:45 am local time, before communications and internet access were cut.Within minutes of the attack, traffic-choked streets slowed and long queues formed outside bakeries and gas stations. Police and security forces were out in numbers.Saturday is usually the start of Iran’s working week, but many shops pulled down their shutters and few pedestrians risked going out, an AFP journalist saw.From outside the capital, reports came in that targets had been hit in almost two thirds of Iran’s provinces.Loud screams could be heard in the background of media footage of the soot-covered debris from a school building hit in the southern province of Hormozgan.As distraught people gathered at the site, the reported death toll rose to reach at least 51 students.With US President Donald Trump urging Iranians to rise up against their leaders, rumours swirled over the status of Iran’s senior military and political figures.But state media was quick to insist that President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and “all the commanders” of Iran’s army were in good health.One small demonstration took to the streets, covered by state media, with around 300 pro-government marchers convening on Tehran’s Palestine square.Beyond Tehran, explosions were reported in Kermanshah in the west, Isfahan in the centre and as far as Zahedan in the southeast.In response, the Revolutionary Guards announced missile and drone strikes on Israel as well as on the US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain.Explosions were also reported over cities across the region, including in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan.Within Iran, the country’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, said contingency plans were being activated.Schools were ordered closed until further notice, while banks were to remain open and government offices would operate at half capacity.Local media quoted officials as saying that food and fuel supplies were covered and that subway and bus services would continue operating as usual.Saturday’s attack came as Tehran and Washington were engaged in negotiations aimed at reaching a deal.The strikes recalled the 12-day war in June, when Israel launched attacks just days before a planned sixth round of talks between Tehran and Washington.Iranian authorities have anticipated the possibility of renewed conflict since last June’s war, which officials said aimed to bring down the Islamic republic.For many ordinary Iranians, tension had already been high following mass protests in late December triggered by economic hardship that left thousands dead.Ahead of the strikes, social media users — particularly on Instagram — on Friday shared safety advice on what to do in the event of explosions or air strikes.Following the attacks, the military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said operations “will continue without pause until the enemy’s definitive defeat”.