Iran pounds US ...
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On Saturday morning, a number of loud explosions were heard in Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, Tabriz, and Kermanshah.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that at least two students were killed by an attack that hit a school east of the capital Tehran.
Over 50 students killed in Iran’s south
Earlier, an Israeli strike hit an elementary girls’ school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan Province of southern Iran, killing 53 people, state media reported.
In the UAE, the Defense Ministry said Iranian strikes had killed one civilian, and witnesses in Dubai heard an explosion and saw missiles streak across the sky.
Smoke was rising over Tehran's Pasteur district, site of the home of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Iranian president ‘safe’
Iranian state television said President Masoud Pezeshkian was "safe and sound", while the Fars news agency said "missile impacts were reported in the Keshvardoost and Pasteur districts" of Tehran.
The attacks came after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration at Iran's stance in negotiations over its nuclear and missile programs.
Trump said Washington's goal was what he called "eliminating imminent threats" from Iran, and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was to remove an "existential threat".
"The United States' military began major combat operations in Iran," Trump said in a video message posted on his social media site while he spent the weekend at his Florida golf club.
"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 claimed, warning of possible US casualties.
The Israeli army warned Iranians in or around military infrastructure across Iran to evacuate after announcing it was conducting a "broad strike" on multiple military targets.
Airspaces closed
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, the UAE and Israel all closed their airspaces to civilian traffic, at least in part, and multiple airlines cancelled flights to the Middle East. US embassies in the Persian Gulf urged American citizens to take shelter.
Explosions were also heard over central Doha and near Al-Udeid military base, the largest US facility in the region, and an AFP journalist saw an interceptor take out one missile in a puff of white smoke, as Qatar's Defense Ministry said it had "repelled a number of attacks".
Kuwait and the UAE also reported intercepting incoming Iranian missiles, with Abu Dhabi saying it "reserves its full right to respond" and slamming the attacks as "a dangerous escalation".
A bombing that targeted an Iraqi military base housing a resistance group killed at least two fighters, sources from the group Kataeb Hezbollah told AFP.
"We will soon begin attacking American bases in response to their aggression," the group said.
The US had built up a large military presence in the region in recent weeks in preparation for an attack, including two aircraft carrier strike groups.
Both the US and Israel called for regime change in Iran and urged a popular uprising after Saturday’s attacks.
Trump and the Israeli military described their attacks as a pre-emptive strike against Iranian threats.
Operation True Promise 4
The Commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters vowed that Operation True Promise 4 that has been launched against the US and Israel will continue without interruption.
“As we had announced (before), in response to the brazen aggression of the US and Zionist regime against Islamic Iran, all the (Israeli) occupied territories and the bases of the criminal US in the region were targeted by crushing attacks of Iranian missiles,” Major General Ali Abdollahi said on Saturday.
“This operation will continue uninterruptedly until the absolute defeat of the enemy,” he stated.
Major General Abdollahi added that given the US and Israeli aggression against Iran, all American bases, resources and interests in the entire region will be deemed legitimate targets for the Armed Forces of Iran.
He also urged the brave and heroic Iranian nation to remain calm, vowing that the Armed Forces will decisively and powerfully defend the country, nation and national interests.
Nuclear talks
The aggression against Iran came again in the middle of new round of negotiations between Iran and the US over Iran’s nuclear program.
Back in June, the Israeli regime and the US had launched acts of aggression against Iran, killing more than 1,100 Iranians.
Attacks in June also were carried out in the middle of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Despite the aggression, Iran entered new round of talks to resolve the decades-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. But the US once again launched strikes on Iran in the middle of the negotiations.