The Washington Post – Satellite images and videos provide the first window into where U.S. and Israeli strikes have landed across Iran, revealing targets that include the Tehran compound of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who President Donald Trump said was killed in the major joint attack. Iranian state media reported explosions in cities across the country.
Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his Tehran compound, according to four Israeli security officials briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
Strikes in Iran
Iran has retaliated and struck at least one U.S. military installation in the region, a navy base in Bahrain where the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet is headquartered. Dozens of U.S. military cargo and refueling planes were recently repositioned to bases in the region. Videos show explosions in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. All three countries along with Qatar and Jordan also said they engaged air defenses to intercept Iranian missile fire.
Trump told The Washington Post early Saturday that his principal objective is “freedom” for the Iranian people as the U.S. launched military strikes in the country. The operations are expected to run at least through the weekend, a U.S. official said.
The total number of casualties in Iran was not immediately clear, but satellite imagery and videos show damage to civilian areas.
Plumes of smoke rose in central Tehran on Saturday near Khamenei’s compound, which houses various government buildings, videos verified by The Post show. Residents honked their car horns, as the smoke eclipsed the sun in one video filmed from a busy intersection about a half mile from the compound. Two columns of gray smoke billowed into the air.
Multiple buildings across the compound were severely damaged or destroyed, satellite imagery shows. The once green gardens were shrouded in dust and debris.
Towers of smoke were visible across the city, including in a video filmed near the sweeping structure of Saman Tower in the east of the city.
A crowd frantically gathered around a school for girls in the coastal city of Minab in the country’s south, after Iranian state media reported that the school had been bombed. Debris, including shattered glass and a crumbled wall, carpeted the ground in visuals verified by The Post. One side of the building appears to have nearly collapsed, as wisps of smoke rose out of what remained.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said the strike killed more than 100 children at the girls’ elementary school in southern Iran. There was no independent confirmation of the number dead.
The school is near what appears to be a military installation, according to satellite imagery and open source material.
“We are aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations,” said Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. “The protection of civilians is of utmost importance, and we will continue to take all precautions available to minimize the risk of unintended harm.”
Two injuries were reported by Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency near a boys’ high school, the Hedayat School, in Tehran. One video verified by The Post showed the school had broken windows. Across the street, a building lined with burned cars had partially collapsed, another video showed, where workers dressed in orange jumpsuits scoured the rubble.
Satellite imagery showed smoke billowing from an Iranian naval vessel at the Konarak naval base in southern Iran. The warship is significant in the Iranian fleet for its ability to fire advanced anti-ship ballistic munitions, said Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at the nonpartisan non-for-profit research organization CNA.
Iranian officials have warned that Israel and U.S. military bases would be considered “legitimate targets” in the event of any attack. Iran’s supreme leader said Feb. 1 that U.S. strikes on Iran would lead to “regional war.”
Iran has targeted at least one U.S. base in the region, the U.S. naval base in Manama, Bahrain. In video from outside the base, a man films while driving toward a tower of dense black smoke that has enveloped the buildings just behind the gate. “This is truly unbelievable,” the video says in a caption.
Another video shows a moment of impact. “They got the NAVCENT building,” the narrator says, referring to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. Dark smoke pours out of the base in the immediate aftermath, two other videos show. Bahrain’s state news agency reported that the attacks struck a service center on the base.
An additional video filmed after the initial explosions shows an Iranian Shahed-style drone hovering above before plunging down, creating a large fireball that gave way to a dark gray smoke plume. It struck a spherical structure that appears to be a radome, a common structure on military bases used to protect equipment.
The Bahrain strike underscores the challenging mission of air defense, a costly and finite resource that the Pentagon must stretch across many sites worldwide. Iranian-made Shahed drones are much slower than missiles, giving analysts more time and opportunity to track and intercept them, though their relatively low altitude can make detection challenging.
No U.S. service members have been reported injured in Iran’s initial retaliatory strikes against military facilities in the region, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet announced publicly.
Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that Iranian missile attacks targeted the naval base in Bahrain, as well as other U.S. military bases including al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait and al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. It was not immediately clear from available imagery if those bases were hit.
Targets of Iran’s retaliation
Smoke plumes were visible near Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where dozens of U.S. aircraft have massed in recent weeks. The Institute of War also reported smoke near the Sas al Nakhl Airbase in Abu Dhabi. It was not clear whether these bases were hit.
Iran struck at least three regional airports including Dubai International Airport, videos published to social media show. Smoke filled the airport’s crowded corridors as passengers rushed to evacuate. Earlier on Saturday, Iranian munitions sent glass flying through the check-in area at Kuwait International Airport and there was an explosion in the vicinity of Irbil International Airport in Iraq, according to videos. Parts of each of the airports are used for U.S. military personnel and air traffic.
Iran appears to have also hit only nonmilitary sites, including the Fairmont Palm, a luxury hotel in Dubai. Flames engulfed lower floors of the hotel, according to video published to social media Saturday. Towers of smoke dwarfed the palm-tree-lined sky. In Bahrain, a Shahed-style drone flew directly into a high-rise residential building, exploding fiery debris onto the balcony below, video shows. The explosion instantly cloaked the building in smoke and set at least three floors ablaze.
The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the attacks “in the strongest terms” in a statement, noting the nation considers “these acts a flagrant violation of national sovereignty and a clear breach of international law.”
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