Where things stand now
• JUST IN: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in today’s massive US and Israeli strikes on Iran, according to Israeli sources. The news comes shortly after Iran claimed its leaders were “safe and sound.”
• About the attack: US President Donald Trump has indicated the ongoing military operation is aimed overturning Tehran’s government. More than 200 people have been killed in Iran, according to state media.
• Unprecedented retaliation: Iran unleashed strikes on US military bases, Israel and other targets across the Middle East, rocking densely populated areas and disrupting air travel and oil shipments.
• Latest from the US: The military has reported no combat-related American casualties. FBI counterterrorism teams are on high alert, and the State Department advised US citizens around the world to “exercise increased caution.”
• A region on edge: The United Arab Emirates called the conflict a “historic moment” in the Middle East, saying world leaders had failed to ensure the region’s stability.
Israel has confirmed Iran’s supreme leader killed in strikes, Israeli sources say
Israel has confirmed that Iran’s supreme leader was killed in strikes on Saturday, according to two Israeli sources familiar with the matter.
One of the sources said Israel had obtained a photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s dead body. The second source said an official announcement is being prepared.
Earlier in the evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there are many signs that Khamenei is “no longer with us.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Iran’s president and Supreme Leader are “safe and sound.” But Khamenei has not been seen in public or in videos since the strikes began.
White House says Trump “just spoke" with leaders of UK, Kuwait and Turkey
President Donald Trump spoke with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following his Saturday announcement that the United States begun “major combat operations” in Iran, according to the White House.
“President Trump just spoke with the leaders of the UK, Kuwait, and Turkey,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a post on X Saturday afternoon.
Cheers and celebrations heard in Tehran following reports of Khamenei’s death
Cheers and celebrations were heard in parts of Tehran Saturday night following reports of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s death.
In one video obtained by CNN from an eyewitness in Tehran, the voices of two women can be heard chanting “Death to the Islamic Republic” and “Long Live the Shah” in Farsi, before cheers and whistles erupt.
In a similar video, cheers are heard echoing across a residential neighborhood in the city.
Israel has confirmed that Iran’s supreme leader was killed in strikes on Saturday, according to two Israeli sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Iran’s president and supreme leader are “safe and sound.”
CNN Investigates: US-Israel strike targeted the very heart of Iran's power structure
CNN's visual investigations team assessed the strategic significance of the targets hit, the emerging civilian toll and Iran’s swift retaliation
Satellite images from Airbus show black smoke rising from the compound of Iran’s supreme leader in the capital Tehran on Saturday. Damage seen in the image appears to show that several buildings in the compound were hit by strikes, after the US and Israel launched joint attacks.
It’s unclear if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was in the compound at the time. Israeli sources have told CNN the supreme leader was killed in today’s US-Israeli attack, though Tehran has claimed both Khamenei and the Iranian president are safe.
CNN confirmed the location of the strikes on the compound by comparing it to several other videos of strikes in this area of Tehran and triangulating them.
Broader context: The supreme leader’s compound, known as the beyt-e rahbari, has for years stood as the seat of the ayatollah’s decadeslong grip on power. More than a building, it is the nerve center of Iran’s theocratic regime.
It’s where Khamenei has issued his stern pronouncements on all matters domestic and international, often using the pulpit to rail against Iran’s Western enemies and the United States in particular.
For millions of Iranians, the compound was the physical embodiment of a regime that has steadily lost the support of many of those it claims to rule over. A population ground down not only by decades of international sanctions but also by years of economic mismanagement, systemic corruption, and the brutal suppression of dissent.
Incoming missile hits Tel Aviv area as Israel launches barrage of interceptors
An incoming missile impacted in the Tel Aviv area on Saturday night, CNN teams observed, as Israel launched a barrage of interceptors.
Within a span of several minutes, CNN teams observed Israel launch a large number of interceptors against what appeared to be the largest wave of incoming Iranian missiles so far.
At least one of the missiles appeared to pierce Israel’s aerial defense array and hit the Tel Aviv area, setting off a large explosion and sending a large dark cloud into the sky.
Rubio will hold a call with G7 counterparts on Saturday
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold a call with his counterparts from G7 countries on Saturday to discuss the situation in Iran, a State Department official told CNN.
The G7 is comprised of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union.
The call between the top US diplomat and the G7 foreign ministers comes amid fears of wider escalation following US and Israeli strikes on Iran Saturday, and retaliatory strikes on countries throughout the Gulf region where the US has bases.
Trump says "a large amount" of Iranian leadership killed during strikes
President Donald Trump said “a large amount” of Iranian leadership were killed during strikes, telling NBC News, “The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone.”
Trump also suggested that the US believes reports citing Israeli officials that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead. “We feel that that is a correct story,” he told NBC in the phone interview.
While Trump said he didn’t know who might replace Khamenei, he added that unnamed people may soon be calling him to weigh in on a successor.
“At some point they’ll be calling me to ask who I’d like,” Trump said, without specifying who. “I’m only being a little sarcastic when I say that.”
Also in the phone call, Trump deemed the strikes a “success.”
“We’ve inflicted tremendous damage. It would take them years to rebuild,” he said.
Blasts and sirens heard in Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv
CNN teams in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Israel are hearing bomb blasts and air raid sirens from the network’s bureaus.
One producer from CNN’s bureau in Tel Aviv shared video of a projectile making landfall amid warning sirens.
In Dubai, journalists heard “several loud blasts,” and in Doha, CNN staff saw missiles illuminating the night sky and shared video where distant explosions are clearly audible.
Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait shifting to remote learning following Iran’s retaliatory strikes
The three Gulf nations of Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait are shifting to remote learning starting Sunday until further notice following Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Saturday.
“Due to the circumstances the country is going through, and based on national responsibility and the Ministry of Education’s concern for the safety of our students and all members of the educational system, it has been decided to switch to distance learning and suspend in-person work at schools for tomorrow, Sunday, March 1, 2026, at all educational levels,” the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education said in a statement.
Qatar and Bahrain’s education ministries issued similar statements, saying the move to remote learning applies to elementary, public and private schools as well as universities.
White House releases photos of Trump and national security team monitoring Iran strikes
The White House released photos of President Donald Trump and his national security team monitoring Iran strikes while in Palm Beach, at the president’s private club Mar-a-Lago.
Black curtains drape the room and Trump sits along side White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe. Trump’s deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino is also seated in the room.
Several phones are in the middle of the table and a poster board behind Trump shows a map of the region with “Operation Epic Fury” written in the bottom right corner.
In additional photos shared by the White House, Trump’s top general Dan Caine is shown pointing at maps. Vice President JD Vance is also pictured in the Situation Room at the White House, where he dialed into a conference line with Trump and the rest of the national security team. CNN previously reported that Vance was in the Situation Room overnight alongside Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
US had indicators Iran planned preemptive strike before Trump ordered action, senior officials claim
A senior administration official said today that they believed Iran was preparing to potentially launch preemptive missile strikes, a factor that influenced President Donald Trump’s decision to initiate military action.
“We had indicators that they intended to use it potentially, preemptively, but if not, if not simultaneous, against with any actions against them, immediately against us,” the senior administration official added. “And the president decided he was not going to sit back and allow America’s forces in the region to absorb attacks from conventional missiles.”
“We are not going to be held hostage by them, and we are not going to let them hit us first, because it would have substantially increased the risk to our troops in the region and to our allies,” the official added.
However, a source familiar with the intelligence contradicted that assertion to CNN, saying that there were no indications that the Iranians planned to strike US forces or assets first — unless they were attacked by Israel or the US.
In his first public remarks following Saturday’s US military strikes, the US president said in a video posted to social media that Iran has been developing missiles that “could soon reach the American homeland,” and made a similar argument earlier this week in his State of the Union address.
But sources told CNN that US intelligence does not support the claim that Iran is close to fielding missiles capable of striking the United States.
IRGC likely to fill any leadership void in short term, US officials previously assessed
The US intelligence community previously assessed that in the event of a regime change operation in Iran that deposed the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would likely fill any leadership void in the short term, CNN has reported.
But intelligence has not been definitive on the issue, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in January that “no one knows” who would take over if the regime falls.
The IRGC “is definitely prominent and functions above the standard military bureaucracy, but it is hard to predict exactly what would happen in a regime collapse scenario,” said one source familiar with recent US intelligence reporting on the matter.
The US has also lacked clear insight into the IRGC’s hierarchy following the US assassination of Iran’s most powerful military commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, during Trump’s first term.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in today’s massive US and Israeli strikes on Iran, according to Israeli sources. The news comes shortly after Iran claimed its leaders were “safe and sound.”
Iran's weakened proxies condemn US-Israeli strikes without carrying out retaliatory attacks
Iran’s network of proxy groups across the Middle East issued stern condemnations of the US-Israeli strikes on their sponsor.
However, the groups have not yet declared their participation in retaliatory strikes.
The proxy groups had previously been quick to come to the defense of Iran, but each group has faced varying levels of diminishment in recent years.
Hezbollah, once a fearsome force in southern Lebanon that has seen its capabilities considerably degraded in waves of Israeli strikes, called on other countries to oppose the attacks.
“We are confident that the American and Israeli enemy will receive a great slap and will reap nothing but failure from its tyrannical, criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement.
In televised remarks, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi said that his forces are “in a state of high readiness for any necessary developments.”
Al-Houthi also sought to assure other Middle Eastern countries that faced retaliatory attacks from Iran that the strikes are Iran’s “legitimate right and is not a targeting of the countries in which the American bases are located.”
Hamas, which has accrued massive losses in Israel’s war in Gaza and faces disarmament, issued a statement calling for unity among Muslims, condemning the attacks, and reaffirming its solidarity with Iran.
Israel has confirmed Iran’s supreme leader killed in strikes, Israeli sources say
Israel has confirmed that Iran’s supreme leader was killed in strikes on Saturday, according to two Israeli sources familiar with the matter.
One of the sources said Israel had obtained a photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s dead body. The second source said an official announcement is being prepared.
Earlier in the evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there are many signs that Khamenei is “no longer with us.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Iran’s president and Supreme Leader are “safe and sound.” But Khamenei has not been seen in public or in videos since the strikes began.
Holy sites in Jerusalem closed to worshippers, Israeli police say
Holy sites in Jerusalem are closed to worshippers as a safety measure, Israeli police said in a statement Saturday.
As the holiest city in Judaism and Christianity, and the third-holiest in Islam, the ban includes many important sites.
A 24-hour webcam aimed at the Western Wall shows its plaza completely deserted as of 9:30 p.m. local time. Likewise, the ban precludes any gatherings at the adjacent Al-Aqsa Mosque, shuttering the holiest site for Muslims in city in the midst of Ramadan.
Trump attacked Iran after negotiations devolved into "games, tricks, stall tastics," senior official says
President Donald Trump decided to strike Iran after concluding that its leadership was unwilling to abandon its pursuit of nuclear enrichment, a senior administration official said today.
“It was clear that the intent for them was to preserve their ability to do enrichment so that, over time, they could use it for a nuclear bomb,” the official told reporters. “We could have made another short-term, bad deal, but it wouldn’t have dealt with the long-term issue.”
Trump had dispatched Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as envoys for negotiations with Iran in the weeks leading up to today’s early-morning strikes. But the talks stalled, with the president saying repeatedly on Friday that he was “not happy” with their trajectory.
The administration had offered Iranian leaders options for developing what the senior official called a “peaceful nuclear program,” including “free nuclear fuel forever.” But they said Iran declined, saying they “needed to enrich uranium.”
“We offered them many, many ways to do that,” the senior official said. “But instead, that was met with games, tricks, stall tactics, and that was really the conclusion that we came back with.”
Here's a recap of our most recent headlines if you're just joining us
News continues to roll in from the Middle East as Iran retaliates to strikes from the US and Israel.
With the situation still evolving rapidly, here’s a quick overview of our latest headlines:
- Israel’s prime minister said there are signs Iran’s supreme leader is “no longer with us” after the attacks, though Tehran is refuting that claim, with a foreign ministy spokesperson insisting both the supreme leader and Iranian president are “safe and sound.”
- More than 200 people have died as a result of the US-Israeli strikes, according to Iranian state media Press TV, which cited the Iranian Red Crescent.
- The US hasn’t suffered any combat-related casualties in its operation, US Central Command said in a statement. Damage to US installations has been minimal and hasn’t affected operations, CENTCOM said.
- Iranian armed forces operations “will continue with even greater force,” a military spokesperson said in a video message. Iran intends to continue its retaliatory offensive “until the aggressor is punished,” an Iranian source with knowledge of the country’s military strategy tells CNN.
- The FBI’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence teams are on elevated alert nationwide, a bureau official told CNN, and the State Department advised US citizens around the world to “exercise increased caution.”
- The US and Israel’s attack generated immediate unease among close allies in the MAGA base, who expressed fears that the strikes could drag the US into yet another prolonged entanglement in the Middle East. President Donald Trump had previously vowed to avoid regime-change efforts in Iran.
- Some oil tankers have U-turned to avoid sailing through the Strait of Hormuz — the critical channel between Iran’s southern coast and the northern tip of Oman — according to the latest tracking data from the analytics firm Kpler.
- Israel dropped hundreds of munitions against approximately 500 targets as part of the massive wave of strikes, the Israeli military said.
"I can go long": Trump says he's weighing multiple options for an endgame in Iran
President Donald Trump said he has multiple paths forward in the US operation against Iran, including a long-term effort to “take over” the country, in a brief interview with Axios.
“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding’” the country’s nuclear capabilities, he told Axios today.
Trump also predicted it would take “several years” for Iran to recover from the joint US-Israeli attack, which came after the negotiations with the country’s leadership stalled, according to the US president.
In the interview, Trump cited the lack of progress in talks over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its decades-long record of being linked to attacks around the world. The president also claimed Iran had begun rebuilding some of the facilities that the US struck last year, which he previously claimed had been “obliterated.”
Trump did not provide a specific timeline for the offensive, saying it would depend on developments on the ground, including the fate of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Axios reported.
Iranian supreme leader and president are "safe and sound," government spokesperson says
Iran’s president and supreme leader are “safe and sound,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told ABC News on Saturday.
Iran’s government “system is working,” Baghaei said.
Baghaei’s comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “there are many signs” that Iran’s supreme leader is “no longer with us.”
Kamala Harris condemns US strikes on Iran without congressional approval
Former Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran Saturday, claiming Congressional approval was necessary prior to such action.
“Let me be clear: I am opposed to a regime-change war in Iran, and our troops are being put in harm’s way for the sake of Trump’s war of choice,” Harris said in a statement on X.
Harris went on to call out the discrepancy between her former opponent’s promises on the campaign trail of a less interventionist US foreign policy and the decision to strike Iran.
“Donald Trump promised to end wars rather than start them. It was a lie,” the statement read. “Then last year, he said ‘we obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program. That, too, was a lie.”
US State Department issues worldwide alert telling Americans to "exercise increased caution"
The State Department on Saturday advised US citizens around the world to “exercise increased caution” after the US and Israeli military strikes against Iran.
“Following the launch of U.S. combat operations in Iran, Americans worldwide and especially in the Middle East should follow the guidance in the latest security alerts issued by the nearest US embassy or consulate,” the worldwide caution alert said.
“They may experience travel disruptions due to periodic airspace closures,” it said. “The Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution.”
The alert advised US citizens abroad to sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program and to follow a security updates channel on WhatsApp.
The State Department issued a worldwide caution alert last June on the same day as “Operation Midnight Hammer,” when the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities.
