US President Donald Trump ⁠said on Saturday that the United States had ⁠begun "major combat operations" ⁠in Iran, with Israel's military saying its joint operations with the United States were attacking "dozens of military targets" and that Tehran had begun to retaliate by firing missiles.

Iran's Fars news agency said the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was attacking several US bases in Kuwait, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain.

Amid travel chaos in the region amid flight cancellations by multiple airlines, blasts were heard over Jerusalem following air raid sirens in the city. Iraq said warplanes coming from Israel had been detected in its airspace.

Bahrain said a missile attack targeted the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in the island kingdom, the state news agency said. A loud explosion was also heard in Abu Dhabi.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the first wave of missiles and drones had been launched against Israel in retaliation for its attack, according to Tasnim news agency. It was followed soon after, the Israeli military said, by a second barrage. A cellphone message was sent to the public urging people to seek shelter.

"Our ⁠objective is to ⁠defend ‌the ‌American people by eliminating imminent ⁠threats from the Iranian ‌regime," Trump said in a video ⁠shared ‌on ‌social media, appealing to the Iranian people to “take over your government – it will be yours to take”.

In multiple social media posts, he also said Iran would never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and had been attempting to rebuild its nuclear programme and claimed that it was developing long-range missiles that threatened the United States and other countries.

"We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally – again – obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy," Trump said, warning that there may be US casualties. US diplomatic staff and nationals in the region have been told to shelter in place.

He also warned the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps to lay down their arms, saying they would be "treated fairly with total immunity", or face certain death.

The Pentagon called the attacks "Operation Epic Fury" and said it might take several days.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the US-Israeli operation was aimed at removing " an existential threat" and would create the conditions for the Iranian people "to take their fate into their own hands".

He said the "time has come" for Iranians to "cast off the yoke of tyranny".

Iranian state television confirmed what it described as an "aerial aggression by the Zionist regime" on the country, following a series of initial explosions that targeted the Islamic republic's leaders.

Its foreign ministry said the joint US-Israeli attacks were targeting "a range of military and defence targets as well as civilian infrastructure across various cities in our country".

The Fars news agency said "seven missile impacts were reported in the Keshvardoost and Pasteur districts" of Tehran, where the residence of supreme guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is located.

Khamanei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were reported to be safe.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday said he would ⁠not accept anyone dragging "the country into adventures that threaten its security and unity", in an indirect message to the Iran-backed ⁠Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have decided to resume missile and drone attacks on shipping routes and on Israel, according to two senior Houthi officials. (Agencies)



Edited by Thomas McAlinden