Trump Calls Killing of Iran’s Leaders ‘Justice’ as Explosions Rock Tehran for Another Day

President Donald Trump used the language of justice on Friday to describe the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, calling the deaths of Iranian leaders a great honor and a long-overdue settling of accounts for nearly 50 years of violence against innocent people around the world. He called Iran’s leaders “deranged scumbags” in a social media post made as US and Israeli aircraft carried out fresh waves of attacks on Tehran. The city’s residents described another day of unceasing explosions and mounting fear.
One 42-year-old shopkeeper in central Tehran described losing track of individual strikes because the bombardment had become so continuous. She had taped newspapers over her windows, had barely slept since the war began, and feared the impending loss of electricity during cold weather. A retired professor of 66 described buildings shaking, streets full of rubble, and a population that wanted to flee but lacked the fuel to do so. Iranian authorities have confirmed that more than 1,300 people have been killed in the country since the conflict began.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed to reporters in Washington that combined US-Israeli forces had struck more than 15,000 enemy targets since the start of the war. He described Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei as wounded, disfigured, and hiding underground, noting the absence of any video or audio from the leader as evidence of his physical incapacitation. Israel separately reported more than 200 individual strikes in the most recent 24 hours, hitting Iranian missile systems, air defences, and weapons production sites.
The violence swept across the broader Middle East on Friday. Saudi Arabia intercepted close to 50 Iranian drones. Qatar ordered evacuations in parts of Doha before confirming a missile interception. Two people died in Oman when drones struck an industrial area near Sohar. Debris from an intercepted Iranian strike damaged a building in Dubai’s financial hub. Lebanon lost eight more people to Israeli strikes in Sidon. Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, injuring close to 60. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced new coordinated strikes with Hezbollah as part of al-Quds Day.
Trump’s late announcement that Kharg Island had been militarily obliterated was accompanied by a warning that its oil infrastructure would be next if Iran continued to block the Strait of Hormuz. The strait carries roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies, and Iran’s campaign against shipping there has alarmed markets worldwide. European governments have reportedly opened quiet diplomatic channels with Tehran, hoping to negotiate safe passage for their commercial vessels. American losses in the conflict stand at 13 service members killed, with France also losing a soldier to an Iranian militia drone in Iraq.