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Summary of the day so far
Donald Trump, speaking in Florida to leaders of Latin American countries at his golf resort in Miami, said US strikes on Iran have significantly damaged the country’s military capabilities, claiming American forces have destroyed 42 Iranian navy ships in three days.
Lebanon’s official News Agency, citing figures from the country’s health ministry, reported that 41 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the eastern Bekaa valley. The Israeli military again warned people south of the Litani river in southern Lebanon to leave, saying the Israeli military is operating with “great force” in the area.
Trump wore a Trump-branded golf cap during the ritual dignified transfer of remains at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday, as the commander-in-chief paid his respects to six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait in an Iranian strike.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” he wrote. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, on his way back to Florida from Dover air force base in Delaware, Trump was asked whether he expects to return there for more dignified transfer ceremonies for US troops killed in the war with Iran he launched last Saturday. “Oh yeah, I’m sure,” he replied. “I hate to do them, but it’s a part of war, isn’t it?”
When asked whether the US bombed a girls’ elementary school in Iran, killing more than 175 people, many of them children, Trump claimed that detailed forensic reporting that indicates the US was responsible is wrong. “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said without offering any evidence for his claim.
Trump also didn’t rule out deploying US troops to secure Iran’s enriched uranium. When asked about whether he would deploy ground troops in Iran, the president said “possibly” but that there would “have to be a very good reason”. He was then asked whether he might send ground troops into Iran to secure its nuclear facilities. “We wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we’d do it later on,” he replied.
Since the start of US and Israeli airstrikes, more than 6,000 civilian structures across Iran have sustained damage, according to a social media statement from Pir Hossein Kolivand, president of the Iranian Red Crescent.
The president of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, gave his first public comments since Iran launched retaliatory strikes at the Gulf nation. “The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh – we are no easy prey,” he said.
Iran’s foreign minister warned in a statement that Trump had misinterpreted the statement by Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in which he apologized to neighboring Gulf states and promised to stop strikes against them, unless an attack against Iran originated from those countries. He said Netanyahu ‘managed to dupe’ Trump ‘into fighting Israel’s wars’
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Lebanon: Israeli strike on Beirut hotel kills four
At least four people have been killed after an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Ten people were injured.
The strike – which hit an apartment in the Ramada hotel building early on Sunday – is the first to hit the heart of the Lebanese capital since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah resumed last week.
In a statement, Israel said it conducted a “precise strike” in Beirut, aimed at what it called “key commanders” in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force foreign operations arm.
The Israeli military did not name the commanders, but accused them of planning “terror attacks against the State of Israel and its civilians” in a statement.
Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry says it intercepted a drone attack in Riyadh, the kingdom’s capital.
In a statement posted on X, the ministry said an attempt to target the city’s diplomatic quarter had been thwarted. No material damage or civilian injuries resulted from shooting down the drone, it added.
The ministry also intercepted six drones east of Riyadh, it said.
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump on Saturday offered only a vague description of what he meant by his demand for an unconditional surrender by Iran’s current regime, while leaving open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground but ruling out asking Kurdish forces to mount an invasion.
“I said unconditional. It’s where they cry uncle or when they can’t fight any long longer and there’s nobody around to cry uncle — that could happen too,” Trump said when pressed by the Guardian aboard Air Force One.
The lack of specifics in Trump’s response made it difficult to ascertain his political endgame for the conflict, an issue that has dogged the White House as it faces scrutiny about what the president wants from Iran and how he would play a role in selecting its next leader.
Trump has been more consistent with his military objectives and has said for days he could send US troops. Still, he caveated using ground troops to secure the enriched uranium, believed to be stored at Iran’s nuclear sites the US bombed last year, as a possibility for later in the conflict.
Earlier, after attending the so-called dignified transfer of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran, Trump told reporters the moment had not made him think twice about continuing.
“No, we’re winning the war by a lot. We decimated their whole evil empire. It will continue I’m sure for a little while but I’m very proud of the people,” Trump said. Later, he added deaths were “a part of war”.
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Pictures: Fire and smoke rise over Tehran after fresh strikes
Plume of smoke and fire have been seen rising over the Tehran skyline overnight. The IDF has said it struck “several fuel storage complexes” across the city.
Flames have been seen rising above an oil storage facility in Tehran after Israel’s military said it conducted strikes on “several fuel storage complexes”.
Video from the Associated Press news agency showed the horizon glowing against the night sky above Iranian capital.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war, the AP reported. State media blamed “an attack from the US and the Zionist regime” at the facility, which supplies Tehran and provinces to the north.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed on X that the Iranian regime would use the sites it struck in Tehran to “distribute fuel to multiple military entities in Iran”.
Kuwait’s international airport has been targeted in a drone attack, the Gulf nation’s defence ministry says, as Iran continued its strikes across the Middle East.
“The fuel tanks of Kuwait Airport were attacked by drones in a direct targeting of vital infrastructure,” an official defence ministry spokesman said on X.
In a further statement, Kuwaiti military added: “Kuwaiti Air Defenses are currently responding to hostile missile and drone threats.”
Summary of the day so far
Donald Trump, speaking in Florida to leaders of Latin American countries at his golf resort in Miami, said US strikes on Iran have significantly damaged the country’s military capabilities, claiming American forces have destroyed 42 Iranian navy ships in three days.
Lebanon’s official News Agency, citing figures from the country’s health ministry, reported that 41 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the eastern Bekaa valley. The Israeli military again warned people south of the Litani river in southern Lebanon to leave, saying the Israeli military is operating with “great force” in the area.
Trump wore a Trump-branded golf cap during the ritual dignified transfer of remains at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday, as the commander-in-chief paid his respects to six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait in an Iranian strike.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” he wrote. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, on his way back to Florida from Dover air force base in Delaware, Trump was asked whether he expects to return there for more dignified transfer ceremonies for US troops killed in the war with Iran he launched last Saturday. “Oh yeah, I’m sure,” he replied. “I hate to do them, but it’s a part of war, isn’t it?”
When asked whether the US bombed a girls’ elementary school in Iran, killing more than 175 people, many of them children, Trump claimed that detailed forensic reporting that indicates the US was responsible is wrong. “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said without offering any evidence for his claim.
Trump also didn’t rule out deploying US troops to secure Iran’s enriched uranium. When asked about whether he would deploy ground troops in Iran, the president said “possibly” but that there would “have to be a very good reason”. He was then asked whether he might send ground troops into Iran to secure its nuclear facilities. “We wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we’d do it later on,” he replied.
Since the start of US and Israeli airstrikes, more than 6,000 civilian structures across Iran have sustained damage, according to a social media statement from Pir Hossein Kolivand, president of the Iranian Red Crescent.
The president of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, gave his first public comments since Iran launched retaliatory strikes at the Gulf nation. “The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh – we are no easy prey,” he said.
Iran’s foreign minister warned in a statement that Trump had misinterpreted the statement by Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in which he apologized to neighboring Gulf states and promised to stop strikes against them, unless an attack against Iran originated from those countries. He said Netanyahu ‘managed to dupe’ Trump ‘into fighting Israel’s wars’
The US Central Command denied on Saturday that any US service members had been taken hostage or captured by Iran.
In a post on X, Iranian security chief Ali Larijani said: “It has been reported to me that several American soldiers have been taken prisoner. But the Americans claim that they have been killed in action. Despite their futile efforts, the truth is not something they can hide for too long.”
US navy captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the US Central Command, told Reuters: “The Iranian regime is doing everything it can to peddle lies and deceive. This is yet another clear example.”
Human Rights Watch said today in a statement that the deadly strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children in southern Iran must be investigated as a war crime.
The strike occurred the morning of 28 February, amid a wave of hundreds of strikes launched across Iran by US and Israeli forces. While the Iranian government has attributed the attack to the US-Israeli coalition, neither nation has claimed responsibility.
“A prompt and thorough investigation is needed into this attack, including if those responsible should have known that a school was there and that it would be full of children and their teachers before midday,” said Sophia Jones, open-source researcher with the Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch. “Those responsible for an unlawful attack should be held to account, including prosecutions of anyone responsible for war crimes.”
The Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school was located in Minab, Hormozgan province, situated on the interior boundary of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval forces compound. Despite this proximity, Human Rights Watch noted that evidence reviewed indicates the school was walled off from the military site and maintained a separate street entrance.
Earlier today, Trump accused Iran of being behind the deadly school explosion despite evidence suggesting it was likely a US airstrike.
When asked about earlier reports of the US attacking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, Trump gave an evasive answer, immediately saying that Iran “are among the most evil people ever on Earth”.
He added: “I know nothing about a desalinization plant, other than to say, if they’re complaining about a desalinization plant, we complain about the fact that they shouldn’t be chopping babies’ heads off.”
US special envoy Steve Witkoff also said the Tehran leadership did not seem “very amenable” during negotiations before the US launched strikes.
“They told me and Jared, we’re not going to give you diplomatically what you couldn’t take militarily,” said Witkoff, referring to fellow negotiator and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. “So you know, I think they’re going to need a change of attitude.”
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