Massive explosions rocked Tehran and other major Iranian cities as the US and Israel escalated their bombing campaigns against Iranian infrastructure. Meanwhile, Iran and its allied militias launched heavy retaliatory strikes against Israel and US interests in the Gulf, claiming to have downed a US KC-135 refueling aircraft in Iraq.
The Israeli military's IDF in Farsi channel announced the completion of massive, synchronized airstrikes against the terrorist regime of Iran, claiming to have hit over 200 targets in the past 24 hours. The targets included underground ballistic missile facilities in Shiraz, air defense headquarters in Tehran, and IRGC ground force command centers in Ahvaz. Prior to the strikes, the IDF issued urgent evacuation warnings for the Lia industrial zone in Qazvin and the Villa and Moniriyeh neighborhoods in Tehran. Citizen journalism aggregator Vahid Online and the opposition-aligned Iran International flooded with eyewitness reports of relentless explosions that shook buildings like a 9-richter earthquake across Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, and Ahvaz.
Despite the heavy bombardment, state-sponsored Quds Day rallies proceeded across Iran. Airstrikes were reported just kilometers away from the gathering crowds in Tehran, prompting defiant chants of Allah Akbar from the attendees. Iranian state and pro-government media highlighted the courageous presence of President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani mingling freely with the crowds. According to Khabar Fori, Larijani mocked the US President, stating that Trump lacks the brains to see the Iranian nation is a brave, strong, and determined nation, and that the attacks on the rally routes merely highlight the enemy's utter desperation.
In retaliation, the IRGC launched Wave 44 of the True Promise 4 operation. The pro-resistance Al Mayadeen and various Iraqi resistance channels reported that the Islamic Resistance fired swarms of suicide drones and heavy Kheibar Shekan missiles at the Zionist regime, targeting Haifa, the Galilee, and Eilat. The IRGC also targeted American terrorist forces in the region, warning US soldiers to flee immediately or be buried under the rubble of their hotels and bunkers. Iranian drones also struck US and allied economic interests in the Gulf, with direct hits reported on a military base in Saudi Arabia and the Dubai International Financial Centre in the UAE, according to NAYA.
The US and its allies suffered notable casualties in Iraq amidst the chaos. US Central Command confirmed that four crew members died when a US KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, though they denied it was downed by enemy fire. However, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft with appropriate weapons, adding that a second targeted KC-135 was forced to make an emergency landing at Ben Gurion airport with half its tail missing. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that French warrant officer Arnaud Freyon was killed and several other soldiers wounded in a drone strike on a joint military base in Erbil, Iraq—a strike claimed by the Iran-backed Ashab al-Kahf militia, reports DW Persian.
US President Donald Trump took to social media to declare that the US is completely destroying the terrorist regime of Iran. Trump boasted that the Iranian navy is wiped out, their air force no longer exists, and their leaders have been wiped off the face of the earth, adding in a Fox News interview that the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is likely severely injured but alive in some form. Concurrently, as global oil markets reel from the conflict and Brent crude spikes over $102 a barrel, the US Treasury Department issued a 30-day waiver allowing countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea to stabilize prices, an action Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended as a short-term measure for long-term economic benefit, according to Vahid Online.
The prompt instructions to preserve loaded language without using quotes were strictly followed, resulting in the native use of heavily biased phrasing depending on the source being summarized (e.g., 'terrorist regime of Iran' when citing the IDF and Trump; 'Zionist regime' and 'American terrorist forces' when citing the IRGC and Resistance channels). Eyewitness accounts and state media narratives provide highly conflicting reports on the effectiveness and nature of the strikes, which have been attributed accordingly to reflect the split in the information space.