Trump’s final ultimatum to Iran after U.S. bombs three nuclear sites

By Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter In Washington, D.C.

‘Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.’

Donald Trump has announced the US has carried out a ‘very successful attack’ on three Iran nuclear sites in a post on Truth Social.

‘We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan’, Trump said .

‘All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.’

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

President Trump announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine will brief reporters at the Petagon on the U.S. military operation against Iran.

Hegseth, a former Fox News commentor and Army National Guard officer, stood behind Trump during his remarks in the East Wing, although he had to quickly reposition himself to be seen.

Trump was also flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

‘Tomorrow, Gen. Caine [and] Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, will have a press conference at 8 am at the Pentagon,’ Trump said at the end of his speech to the nation. ‘And I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God, I want to just say we love you, God and we love our great military protect them,’ he said.

By Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter In Washington, D.C.

While Donald Trump addressed the nation Saturday night, key members of his Cabinet stood by his side, slightly behind him as the Presdient stood directly behind a podium adorned with his Presidential Seal.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stood by the President for the duration of his speech, which lasted just over three minutes.

By Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter In Washington, D.C.

Addressing the nation Saturday night, Trump praised the brave American pilots who flew the B-52 stealth bombers over Iran.

‘Most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.’

‘Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity.’

By Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter In Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the collaborative effort in attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.

‘I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.’

‘We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done.’

Netanyahu responded with his own high praise for Trump.

By Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter In Washington, D.C.

Addressing the nation Saturday evening, President Donald Trump announced complete success in eliminating Iran’s three key nuclear enrichment sites.

‘Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.’

Donald Trump has confirmed he ‘completely obliterated’ Iran’s Fordow nuclear site with six massive 30,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs.

Two other nuclear sites in Iran were also ‘wiped out’ with 30 Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. submarines 400 miles away.

The details were revealed by Sean Hannity of Fox News, who spoke to the president shortly after the strikes.

Members of Donald Trump’s MAGA base rushed to embrace the president following his announcement that he ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities – while a House Republican came forward to call it unlawful.

‘This is not Constitutional,’ wrote Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who Trump has called to be thrown out of office over his opposition to his ‘big, beautiful bill’ for adding to the nation’s accumulated debt.

Last week, Massie was among those pushing for Congress to act before the president engaged the U.S. in a military conflict, with plans to introduce a resolution under the War Powers Act.

Trump reportedly told Reuters in a brief phone interview:

Tonight was an amazing success. [Iran] should make peace immediately. They should stop immediately, or they’ll get hit again.

Mike Johnson, the Republican House Speaker, said:

The military operations in Iran should serve as a clear reminder to our adversaries and allies that President Trump means what he says. The President gave Iran’s leader every opportunity to make a deal, but Iran refused to commit to a nuclear disarmament agreement.

The President’s decisive action prevents the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants “Death to America,” from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet. This is America First policy in action. God bless our brave men and women in uniform – the most lethal fighting force on the planet – as we pray for their safe return home. May God bless America.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency has acknowledged the attack on the Fordo nuclear facility.

Quoting a statement from Iran’s Qom province, IRNA said: ‘A few hours ago, when Qom air defenses were activated and hostile targets were identified, part of the Fordo nuclear site was attacked by enemies.’

The semiofficial Fars news agency, also close to the Guard, quoted another official saying air defenses opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard.

The Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility in central Iran as seen on June 14.

The Fordow uranium enrichment facility, located south of the capital Tehran, is pictured on February 12.

The Natanz nuclear facilities near Ahmadabad in Iran is pictured on June 21.

President Trump is hoping the strikes on three nuclear sites will push Iran back to negotiations, sources familiar with the matter have said.

It is believed he is not planning any more strikes and sees the steps taken on Saturday as ‘necessary’ to end the war.

However, American forces in the region are prepared for further retaliation.

By Dan Hodes, Mail on Sunday

Two months ago I was sitting in a hotel in Tel Aviv, where I wrote the following words. ‘According to several senior political, military and diplomatic sources, the United States and Israel are preparing to launch a strike on Iran that will finally eradicate the threat posed by the country’s nuclear weapons programme.’

“This should have been avoided a long time ago,” a senior Israeli government source told me. “It’s time to draw a line.”’

I knew in April the finishing touches were being put to what Benjamin Netanyahu dubbed Operation Rising Lion. Tehran knew. Washington knew. The global diplomatic community knew.

Read the full story below:

Several Republican senators are praising President Donald Trump after he announced Saturday evening that the US military bombed three sites in Iran.

‘Well done, President Trump,’ Senator Lindsey Graham, posted on X.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn called it a ‘courageous decision.’

Alabama Senator Katie Britt said she stands by Trump and called the bombings ‘strong and surgical.’

Donald Trump will address the nation at 3am UK time (10pm EST) from the White House.

The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.

The strikes are a perilous decision for the US as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault.

It is also a risk for Trump personally, who won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.

President Donald Trump has arrived back at the White House following a visit to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

He did not take any questions from reporters and headed immediately into his meeting about Iran in the Situation Room.

Americans are being evacuated from Israel as a number of B-2 stealth bombers were deployed to the region in anticipation of a possible strike against an Iranian nuclear facility.

Mike Huckabee – the US Ambassador to Israel – urged US citizens in the country to complete a crisis intake form that would help them seek a way back to America, if the opportunity arises.

‘The Department of State has begun assisted departure flights from Israel,’ Huckabee said. ‘With airspace mos

tly closed, the challenges are great. If given an option, TAKE IT.’

Read the full story below:

Residents in Tel Aviv have gathered in underground car parks to take shelter tonight.

Some Jewish men were pictured praying to mark the end of Shabbat.

While others gathered to listen to live music in the shelter.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned Saturday of a ‘more devastating’ retaliation should Israel’s nine-day bombing campaign continue, saying the Islamic republic would not halt its nuclear programme ‘under any circumstances’.

Israel said on Saturday it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented offensive, and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tehran’s alleged progress towards a nuclear weapon had been set back by two years.

‘We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat’ Saar told the German newspaper Bild, adding that Israel would keep up its onslaught.

Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

On Saturday, Israel said it had attacked Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, with the UN nuclear watchdog reporting that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop had been hit.

Later Saturday Iran’s Mehr news agency said Israel had launched strikes on the southern city of Shiraz, which hosts military bases.

And early Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced that a ‘vast’ wave of ‘suicide drones’ had been launched against ‘strategic targets’ across Israel.

Iran denies seeking an atomic bomb, and on Saturday Pezeshkian said its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme ‘cannot be taken away… by threats or war’.

A large nuclear complex in Esfahan has been targeted for a second time during Israel’s attacks on Iran over the past nine days, with several more buildings struck, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today.

The site in central Iran was first hit on June 13. No increase of off-site radiation levels was reported.

The IAEA said that six buildings at the same site had also been attacked today.

‘This nuclear complex in Esfahan – one of the key sites of the Iranian nuclear programme – has repeatedly been attacked and extensively damaged. Based on our analysis of the nuclear material present, we don’t see any risk of off-site contamination. Nevertheless, as I have repeatedly stated, nuclear facilities should never be attacked,’ Director General Grossi said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced early Sunday the launch of suicide drones towards Israel, the latest wave of attacks as fighting between the two fores entered the 10th day.

‘A vast wave of attack and suicide drones has been heading for hours towards their (Israeli) strategic targets throughout the regime’s territory, from the north to the south of the occupied territories,’ Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini was quoted as saying by state television.

Air defences are being engaged in the city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, local media has reported.

Israeli drones are being monitored, intercepted and destroyed, according to the Tasnim news agency.

The Israeli military has launched a fresh wave of strikes on Saturday in the area of southern Iran’s Bandar Abbas, targeting drones storage sites and a weapons facility.

Israeli forces are ‘currently striking UAV storage facilities and a weapons facility in southwestern Iran in the area of Bandar Abbas,’ a military statement said.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said air defences were active in the country’s south after detecting Israeli enemy aircraft, with batteries responding in Bandar Lengeh and Bandar Abbas.

For more than a week Israel has been carrying out waves of air attacks on Iranian targets in the arch foes’ worst confrontation to date.

Iran has fired back with waves of ballistic missiles aimed at Israeli cities, with a hospital, apartment blocks and a refinery struck by the counterstrikes.

Iraqis have been pictured stepping on the flag of Israel during demonstrations in Baghdad.

The group were also seen stepping on images of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The IDF has shared footage of its military reportedly striking F-14 fighter jets in Iran on social media.

It comes as the country resumed strikes on Saturday.

Iran’s armed forces threatened on Saturday to strike shipments of military aid to Israel during the ongoing fighting between the two foes.

‘We warn that sending any military or radar equipment by boat or aircraft from any country to assist the Zionist regime will be considered participation in the aggression against Islamic Iran and will be a legitimate target for the armed forces,’ a spokesman said in a video statement broadcast on state TV.

Thousands of protesters marched towards Whitehall from Russell Square in central London today.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted ‘free, free Palestine’, ‘occupation no more, Israel is a terrorist state’ and ‘stop bombing Iran’.

Many chanted ‘shame on you’ as they walked past dozens of counter-protesters, organised by pro-Israeli group Stop The Hate, near Waterloo Bridge.

At least five soldiers have been killed in an Israeli attack on Sumar in western Iran.

Nine other people were also injured in the attack, Iranian media has reported.

Loud blasts have been heard in the Iranian capital, journalists in the region have said.

It was not immediately clear whether the blasts heard in central and northern Tehran were the result of incoming Israeli strikes or Iranian air defence fire.

RAF Typhoon jets from Akrotiri were used to defend Israel from Iranian drone and missile attacks last year, although they have not been involved in the current fighting between the two Middle East rivals.

The base is also used for flights as part of Operation Shader to counter Islamic State militants.

In a sign of some of the more sensitive activity at the base, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited Akrotiri in December last year and said ‘quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about all of the time’.

Security at RAF bases is under scrutiny after Palestine Action protesters entered the Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and vandalised two aircraft.

RAF Brize Norton serves as the hub for UK strategic air transport and refuelling, including flights to RAF Akrotiri.

Musician Paloma Faith told pro-Palestine campaigners that she would not ‘stick to music and stay away from politics’.

Addressing crowds at the national march for Palestine in Whitehall, the singer said: ‘What has this world come to when we are so desensitised to death, to suffering, to violence live-streamed in the palm of our hands, that we carry on with our lives and our privileges and our dignity as human beings when others are living with none of those things.

‘For the last 20 months, since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, I’ve been sleeping with my children every night, holding them close, because nothing matters more to me than my children – just like nothing mattered more to Dr Alaa al-Najjar when she went to the hospital to save people’s lives, only to return home to discover that her husband and her nine children had been killed by Israeli air strikes.’

A British man has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and terrorism offences in Cyprus.

The man is reported to have kept the RAF Akrotiri base on the island under surveillance and is alleged to have links with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, local media reported.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are in contact with the authorities in Cyprus regarding the arrest of a British man.’

RAF Akrotiri is the UK’s most important airbase for operations in the Middle East.

The Philenews website said the man was arrested on Friday following intelligence he was planning an imminent terrorist attack.

He is alleged to have lived in a flat in Zakai, Limassol, close to Akrotiri and was observed near the base carrying a camera with a long lens and three mobile phones.

Local reports suggested he was Azerbaijani but the UK Foreign Office said they were working with the authorities over the arrest of a Briton.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his country’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme cannot be taken away by war.

‘Iran has always announced that it is ready to provide guarantees and build confidence in its peaceful nuclear activities within the framework of international law,’ Pezeshkian told Emmanuel Macron in a phone call.

‘The rights granted to countries and nations by international law cannot be taken away from them by threats or war.’

Israel said on Saturday that an Iranian plot to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus had been foiled.

Posting on X, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the planned attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was thwarted ‘thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities’.

No further information was given.

Cyprus police said they have arrested a man on espionage and terror charges on Saturday, with local media reporting the suspect has ties to Iran.

Police declined to provide extensive details, citing ‘national security’, but local media said the suspect was seen acting suspiciously near a British air force base at Akrotiri, outside the southern coastal city of Limassol.

Cypriot news outlet Philenews reported the man had links to ‘Iranian operatives’ and had arrived on the Mediterranean island last month posing as a British tourist.

It said the arrest in Limassol on Saturday was based on information from a foreign intelligence service.

The Israeli military has shared further details on its strikes on southwestern Iran today.

It said it had struck ‘dozens of military targets’ using 30 jets and over 50 munitions.

A IDF spokesperson said: ‘As part of the strikes, IAF fighter jets struck a site where missile launchers were stored, some of which had launched missiles in the past toward the State of Israel.’

Assisted departure flights from Israel for US citizens have begun on Saturday, the State Department has said.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee encouraged US citizens and lawful permanent residents in Israel and the West Bank, who want government assistance to depart, to complete a form on the department’s website.

Violence has erupted on the streets of London as police arrested a suspect for throwing a bottle at pro-Israeli counter-protesters as thousands marched through the capital in support of Palestinians.

Activists calling for urgent aid to be sent to Gaza and for Israel to stop bombing Iran yelled ‘shame on you’ at the pro-Israeli counter-demo.

Demonstrators were heading to Whitehall from Russell Square in central London and waved Palestinian flags and chanted ‘free, free Palestine,’ ‘occupation no more, ‘Israel is a terrorist state,’ and ‘stop bombing Iran’.

Campaigners gathered in large numbers under the banner of the Palestine Coalition.

But things took an ugly turn as they passed a group of counter-protesters assembled near Waterloo Bridge by the pro-Israeli group Stop the Hate.

Read more:

The head of security to the late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike while in Iran, a Hezbollah official said Saturday.

Abu Ali Khalil, better known as Abu Ali Jawad, was killed after he went to Iran from neighboring Iraq, the official said.

For many years, Abu Ali was seen behind Nasrallah during most of his public appearances.

After Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstike in a Beirut suburb in September, his bodyguard was put in charge of his tomb in Beirut.

The Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the airstrike that killed Abu Ali occurred earlier Saturday.

Yemen’s Houthis have said that they will target US ships in the Red Sea if it gets involved in Israeli attacks on Iran.

The group, which has repeatedly targeted British and American ships during the conflict in Gaza, has now threatened once again to hit US boats.

The Houthis are widely considered to be funded by Iran.

In May, the US and the Houthis agreed to a ceasefire under which neither side would target the other.

Deadly stealth bombers, which only the US has in their arsenal, are on their way to a US Air Force base in Guam amid growing tensions with Iran, according to reports.

Six B-2 stealth bombers, docked at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, appeared to be on the move on Saturday morning, according to Fox News.

The bombers are said to have been refueled, which means they could have launched without full tanks due to the extraordinarily heavy bunker-buster bombs.

The B-2 is capable of carrying a 30,000-pound bomb, which experts have concluded could be the only way to destroy Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear site, Fordo.

The bomb, known as the GBU-57 or the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, is something only the US military possesses.

Read more:

An Australian reporter has shared the terrifying moment she had to run for cover from a missile strike in Israel while reporting on escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Channel 7’s Europe Correspondent Jacquelin Robson told Sunrise she was reporting with her camera crew on Friday when she received an urgent alert to seek shelter.

The group rushed towards what they believed to be a safe haven only to discover it was nonexistent.

‘Some locals called us over to a bunker, but we soon discovered that bunker didn’t exist,’ Robson said on Saturday.

‘When the final siren sounded, we had no choice but to run and find shelter.

‘We managed to squeeze between a few buildings.’

A senior Iranian official said on Saturday that proposals put forward by European powers at talks in Geneva about his country’s nuclear programme were ‘unrealistic’, suggesting that if they stuck to them it would be difficult to reach an accord.

There were few signs of progress on Friday after the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, plus the EU met their Iranian counterpart in a bid to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran from escalating.

‘The discussions and proposals made by the Europeans in Geneva were unrealistic. Insisting on these positions will not bring Iran and Europe closer to an agreement,’ the senior official told Reuters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

‘In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting,’ the official said.

Both sides signalled on Friday their readiness to keep talking, although no new date was set.

European diplomats said Friday’s talks had been aimed at testing Tehran’s willingness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being no obvious prospect of Israel halting its attacks soon.

While neither side disclosed details of what was put forward, two European diplomats said the E3 did not believe that Israel would accept a ceasefire in the near term and that it would be difficult for Iran and the US to resume negotiations.

The UN nuclear agency confirmed on Saturday that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site had been hit, in the latest strike amid Israel’s bombing campaign.

It said there was ‘no nuclear material’ at the site hit by Israel, meaning there are no concerns about radiological consequences.

‘A centrifuge manufacturing workshop has been hit in Esfahan, the third such facility that has been targeted in Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear-related sites over the past week,’ the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement quoting its chief Rafael Grossi.

‘We know this facility well. There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,’ Grossi was quoted as saying.

Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have marched through Central London today yellow ‘shame on you’ and ‘stop bombing Iran’ at pro-Israeli counter-demo.

Demonstrators were heading to Whitehall from Russell Square in central London and waved Palestinian flags and chanted ‘free, free Palestine,’ ‘occupation no more, ‘Israel is a terrorist state,’ and ‘stop bombing Iran’.

Campaigners gathered in large numbers under the banner of the Palestine Coalition.

Many shouted ‘shame on you’ as they passed a group of counter-protesters assembled near Waterloo Bridge by the pro-Israeli group Stop the Hate.

The march, which began around midday in Russell Square, is moving through Aldwych and the Strand before concluding with a rally and speeches in Whitehall.

Read more:

Six B-2 bomber planes are reported to have left the US from a base in Missouri.

They are understood to be on their way to Andersen Air Force base in Guam, which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The B-2 stealth bomber is capable of carrying a 30,000-pound bomb, which experts have concluded could be the only way to destroy Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear site: Fordo.

The bomb, known as the GBU-57 or the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, is something only the US military possesses.

The Fordo fuel enrichment plant is buried deep within a mountain system in Iran, but experts don’t know exactly how deep, which complicated a potential US mission to neutralize it.

Experts who spoke to The New York Times believe the facility at its shallowest is 250 feet deep, but could be as much as 30 feet deeper.

Nonetheless, GBU-57 is the only way to assuredly wipe out the facility, short of using a nuclear device.

Early Saturday, smoke could be seen rising from an area near a mountain in Isfahan, where a local official said Israel had attacked the nuclear research facility in two waves.

The target was two centrifuge production sites, and the attacks came on top of strikes on other centrifuge production sites elsewhere in recent days, according to an Israeli military official speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines to brief reporters.

It was the second attack on Isfahan, which was hit in the first 24 hours of the war as part of Israel’s goal to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.

Akbar Salehi, Isfahan province’s deputy governor for security affairs, confirmed the Israeli strikes had caused damage to the facility but said there had been no human casualties.

Iran launched a new wave of drones and missiles at Israel but there were no immediate reports of significant damage, and the Israeli official called it a ‘small barrage’ that was largely intercepted by Israel’s defenses.

An alleged member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who claimed he was a British tourist has been arrested on terror charges as he is accused of spying on a British RAF base in Cyprus.

The individual, from Azerbaijan, was arrested by the country’s Anti-Terrorism Squad after receiving intelligence he was planning an imminent terrorist attack from a cooperating foreign service, sources claim.

The man is accused of having the British RAF military base in nearby Akrotiri under surveillance since mid-April, as well as Cyprus’s own Andreas Papandreou Air Base in the western region of Paphos, which is currently also being used by the US. Sources say he was planning an immediate terrorist attack.

Two further arrests linked to the case are said to have been made in the UK in an operation that involves intelligence services, Europol and Interpol.

84 Squadron is based at the British RAF base in Akrotiri, with extra British Typhoon planes being sent to the island in recent weeks as tensions ratchet up across the Middle East.

Donald Trump this week told defence officials it would only make sense for the US to join Israel in striking Iran if its ‘bunker buster’ bombs are guaranteed to be able to destroy the key enrichment site at Fordow, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Officials were said to have been told that the US would have to soften the ground with conventional bombs before dropping a tactical nuclear weapon from a B2 Bomber to completely destroy the site, believed to be some 90 metres underground.

He previously said he would give Iran a maximum of two weeks to get back to the negotiating table before possibly joining Israel in strikes.

Israel said on Saturday it had killed a veteran Iranian commander as the countries traded attacks, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.

Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, was killed in a strike in an apartment in the Iranian city of Qom, said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.

Calling his killing a ‘major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force’, Katz said in a statement that Izadi had financed and armed the Palestinian militant group Hamas ahead of its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

The Revolutionary Guards said five of its members had been killed in attacks on Khorramabad, according to Iranian media reports that did not mention Izadi, who was on US and British sanctions lists. The IDF claims to have killed three Iranian commanders overnight.

Israel accused Izadi of being responsible for ‘military coordination between senior commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian regime, and key figures in the Hamas terror organization.’

The IDF added this was particularly the case before October 7, in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed in a suprise attack by terror group Hamas.

Izadi was said to have helped finance and arm the group as part of a plan to ‘destroy Isreal’.

Izadi, who is under US and British sanctions, was described by the Israeli military as ‘one of the main orchestrators of the October 7th massacre and one of the few people who knew about it in advance’. Iran denies any involvement.

Several ‘powerful explosions’ were heard Saturday afternoon in southwestern Iran’s Ahvaz, the daily Shargh reported, on the ninth day of hostilities between the Islamic republic and Israel.

Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan province, which is situated on the Iraqi border and is Iran’s main oil-producing region. The Israeli military had previously announced it was striking ‘military infrastructure’ in the southwest.

It comes as Iran reported that more than 400 people have been killed in the country since June 13, with more than 50 of those being women and children.

Another 3,056 people have been injured, according to state media.

Meanwhile in Israel at least 24 people have been killed in retaliatory strikes.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made the remarkable decision to name his potential successors in the event that he is assassinated.

Khamenei, who is hiding out in a bunker, picked an array of leaders to take over both his military and political duties if he is killed in Israeli airstrikes, the New York Times reports.

Tensions in the Mideast region have fired up in recent days – with both Iran and Israel launches barrages of strikes on one another as Donald Trump toys with the decision for US military intervention.

Israel has launched the largest military assault on Iran since the war in Iraq, intensifying the already fragile relationship between the two regions.

Officials told the New York Times that Khamenei is instructing the nation’s Assembly of Experts, the body of government overseeing the supreme leader, to choose his successor from the three names he provided.

Read more:

Six of the US’s B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri appear to be en route to a US air force base in Guam, flight tracker data suggests.

The movement of the jets is sigificant as Israel continues its bombing campaign against Iran targeting nuclear and military targets.

The US is the only nation thought to have the ‘bunker-busting’ bombs that would be needed to damage Iran’s deepest nuclear facility, the Fordo plant.

The bombers refueled after launching from Missouri, suggesting they launched without full fuel tanks due to a heavy onboard payload, which could be bomb

Good afternoon and welcome to MailOnline’s live blog on the conflict in the Middle East.

We’ll be keeping you updated on all the latest news throughout the day.