By Tolga Sahin | Intern
The United States and Israel killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint military strike on Iran early Saturday, according to U.S. and Israeli officials. Khamenei served as the supreme leader from 1989 onward and held total authority over Iran’s government and military.
President Donald Trump said the United States had launched a “massive and ongoing” military campaign to dismantle the Iranian military, eliminate its nuclear program and bring about a change in government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a separate video statement that the strikes were a “joint operation” against the threat posed by Iran.
The attack struck numerous military targets across the country, including sites in Tehran, the capital housing the presidential palace, Iran’s National Security Council and the Ministry of Intelligence. Israeli officials indicated that the operation’s central goal was to hit as many senior Iranian leaders as possible.
The Department of Defense — renamed by Trump’s executive order to be the Department of War — shared a post on X declaring the operation as “Operation Epic Fury.”
The strikes came despite diplomatic efforts. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s envoys, met with Iranian officials in Geneva on Thursday, two days before the attack. In addition, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi flew to Washington regarding the U.S.-Iran relationship. Albusaidi said Tehran had agreed to never stockpile enriched uranium, but Iran refused to discuss other reported American demands, including giving up enrichment entirely, limiting its ballistic missiles and ending support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Trump expressed Friday that he was discontent with the ongoing talks.
“I’d love not to use force,” Trump said. “Sometimes you have to.”
In a video posted to Truth Social at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Trump called the campaign a long-overdue reckoning.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump said. “Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.”
As of Monday, four U.S. service members were killed and five were seriously wounded during the operation, according to U.S. Central Command. The troops were part of an army sustainment unit stationed in Kuwait, struck by an incoming Iranian munition. Trump said they expected casualties.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” Trump said. “That often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.”
Trump directed a message to the Iranian people, urging them to rise against their government and go against the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to lay down their weapons. He promised “total immunity” to those who surrendered and “certain death” to those who did not.
Netanyahu said the strikes could “create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands.”
The U.S. conducted operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22, 2025, during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. College Station senior and College Republicans President Lindsay Flanigan emphasized the success of this mission.
“The bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities was a great step towards stability in the Middle East,” Flanigan said. “Removing the threat of nuclear weapons from Iran was a great step toward stability and looking to Israel as a partner and ally in the global stage.”
Despite Supreme Leader Khamenei’s death, Iran’s military conducted retaliation strikes against many U.S.-allied countries such as Israel, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain. Sirens and shelter-in-place alerts have gone in Israel and Bahrain. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an Iranian-backed group, continued attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor.
Iran’s foreign minister said it was time to defend the homeland. The websites of several Iranian news agencies, including the official state outlet IRNA, went down, with IRNA reporting it had been hacked.
Tensions with Iran have long tested American presidents of both parties. Dr. Patrick Flavin, chair of the political science department, said Iran remains one of the world’s enduring hotspots.
“I think you could sort of divide it out into long-term political hotspots, such unstable places,” Flavin said. “Iran certainly is one of those that, regardless of who was president, they would probably be reacting to that or trying to figure out how to respond to that situation.”
The operation drew criticism from the Democratic Party. Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said Congress received no real briefings or intelligence on the attack and that the Trump administration presented no strategic justification for the strikes.
Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Democrat and former Marine who served in Iraq, said the United States can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending troops to die.
One of the top frontrunners for the 2028 presidential election, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, released a statement calling the attacks a choice.
“Mr. President: this was not an inevitability,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people. Violence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region and this will be no different.”
Ocasio-Cortez also indicated that she will vote for the bipartisan War Powers Resolution, urging every member to join it.
“In moments of war, our Constitution is unambiguous: Congress authorizes war. The President does not.” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I will do my part to uphold our Constitution by voting YES on Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s War Powers Resolution. Every member of Congress must join.”
Administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, said they plan a quick air-only campaign with no American troops fighting on the ground. But Trump told reporters he expects the operation to last four to five weeks and has not ruled out sending ground troops.
The war is also driving up oil prices. U.S. crude oil jumped more than 6% Monday after ships stopped moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway near Iran where about one-fifth of the world’s oil is shipped.
Before the strikes, Trump also turned his attention to Cuba Friday, suggesting the U.S. could soon take over the island nation.
“The Cuban government is talking with us; they’re in a big deal of trouble, as you know,” Trump said. “Maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba. We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
