In language that drew both alarm and support from different corners of the world, President Donald Trump declared on Friday that the deaths of Iranian leaders were long overdue, calling them “deranged scumbags” who had been killing innocent people globally for 47 years. His remarks accompanied one of the most intense days of US and Israeli bombing since the war began, with successive waves of airstrikes hitting targets across Tehran and a late announcement that every military installation on Kharg Island had been completely destroyed. Trump vowed that even harder strikes were imminent.
Tehran has not had a single day without explosions since the conflict began with Israel’s killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to residents. A 66-year-old retired professor described a city where buildings shake from the force of the blasts, rubble fills the streets, and people risk their lives simply by going to work. She described an impossible situation: sick family members who cannot be moved, fuel too scarce to permit escape, and a pleading desperation for the international community to act before the city is completely destroyed.
US and Israeli forces have combined to strike over 15,000 enemy targets since the conflict began, with Israel alone carrying out more than 200 individual strikes in the most recent 24-hour window. Trump’s late announcement about Kharg Island described a US Central Command operation of extraordinary scale, with every military facility on Iran’s primary oil export hub completely obliterated. He simultaneously issued a warning that the island’s oil infrastructure would be struck next if Iran continued to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The wider regional conflict expanded further on Friday. Lebanon recorded over 600 deaths and 800,000 displaced, with eight more killed in Sidon in an Israeli strike. Hezbollah injured about 60 Israelis with rocket salvoes. Saudi Arabia intercepted nearly 50 Iranian drones. Qatar issued Doha evacuation orders before a missile interception. Two died in Oman in drone crashes. Dubai’s financial district sustained damage. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced new coordinated strikes on Israel with Hezbollah as part of al-Quds Day.
Iran has officially reported over 1,300 deaths. The United States lost 13 service members, including six in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq. France lost a soldier in Iraq to a militia drone. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei as wounded, disfigured, and in hiding underground. European governments quietly sought diplomatic channels with Tehran to secure commercial shipping safety in the Strait of Hormuz while Trump threatened further strikes on Iranian oil infrastructure, keeping global energy markets in a state of high uncertainty.