US-Israel strikes kill Iran’s Khamenei, chaos continues across Middle East: Live Updates (VIDEOS)

The joint attack against the Iranian leadership has triggered a wave of retaliatory strikes across the region

Massive, unprovoked US-Israeli strikes against Iran began on Saturday morning and are continuing for the second day in a row.

The strikes have killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the head of the Iranian Republican Guard, and several other top officials, state media has confirmed.

Iran has responded with hundreds of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and US bases across the Gulf region, accusing the US and Israel of violating its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Hundreds of Iranian civilians have been killed, including more than a hundred schoolchildren in a single strike, which Iran blamed on Israel.

Shipping and air traffic across the Middle East have been plunged into chaos, with thousands of tourists stranded across airports.

Moscow, China, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, along with several other nations, have condemned the US and Israeli attacks. The EU has criticized Tehran for its retaliatory strikes more than it has Israel and the US for its unprovoked aggression.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences over the killing of Khamenei, describing his death as a “cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.”

01 March 2026
19:01 GMT
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held a phone call with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
They condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and stressed that policies aimed at overthrowing the legitimately elected authorities of sovereign states are unacceptable, according to a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
They called for the immediate cessation of hostilities and expressed readiness to work together to stabilize the situation through coordinated actions within intergovernmental organizations, including the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
FILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. © Getty Images / Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/Handout/Anadolu Agency
18:58 GMT
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has blamed Iran for the conflict, calling it a “regime of terror” that oppresses its own people and threatens Israel. He demanded that it immediately end its retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases in the Middle East, adding that this is “not the time to lecture our partners and allies.”

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‘Dangerous venture’: World reacts to US-Israel attack on Iran

Berlin “shares many of the goals” set by Washington and West Jerusalem, Merz said. Germany seeks a new order in the Middle East in which “all neighbors unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist,” he added.
18:36 GMT
Three “violating oil tankers” have been struck by missiles in the Persian and Hormuz straits in “continuing attacks on enemy maritime targets,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed in a statement cited by Fars news agency.
18:32 GMT
The death toll in the US-Israeli strike on a girls’ primary school in the Iranian city of Minab has reached 165, Tasnim news agency reports, citing the regional governor. Rubble clearing operations at the site have been finished, the report said, adding that the figure is final.
18:19 GMT

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Moscow condemns US-Israel strikes on Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors will convene on Monday to discuss the Iran situation, at Moscow’s request, Russia’s permanent representative to the IAEA in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, has said.
18:12 GMT
Iranian attacks on US bases in the Middle East have so far caused at least 560 casualties, dead and wounded, among American soldiers, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed in a statement cited by Fars news agency.
Drone and missile attacks have entirely decommissioned a US base in Kuwait and damaged another, and UAV strikes have caused “severe damage” to the US naval base in Bahrain’s Mina Salman Port, it said.
17:58 GMT
The Abu Dhabi and Dubai stock exchanges will be closed Monday and Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates authorities have announced, citing the military escalation between the US, Israel, and Iran. Both cities have been affected by Iran’s retaliatory strikes targeting US bases in the region.
17:56 GMT
An RT office in Tehran has reported that new explosions have rocked the city. Some of them hit areas relatively close to the office. Journalists recorded a video showing plumes of smoke rising over the city.
17:55 GMT
The Iranian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that some of its facilities were targeted in the US-Israeli strikes. The state broadcaster did not provide details on the extent of the damage, but said its channels continue to operate as normal.
17:39 GMT
The US military has sunk nine Iranian ships and destroyed the country’s naval HQ, Trump has claimed in a Truth Social post.
“I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships,” he wrote. “We are going after the rest – They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!”

28 February 2026
07:35 GMT
Farhad Ibrahimov, a lecturer at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow and a specialist on Iran and the Middle East, says Israel’s strikes on Iran were similar to the June 12-13 attack last year.
On the eve of those events, US President Donald Trump announced a new round of negotiations with Tehran, and the following day Israel struck Iran, he posted on his Telegram channel. “The same thing is happening today,” Ibrahimov, a regular RT contributor, added.
Israel carried out what it described as a “pre-emptive strike” on Tehran and a number of other Iranian cities, fully aware that Iran would respond, he posted. “And if Iran responds, the Americans will step in and the negotiations will be over.”
07:36 GMT
Tehran is preparing retaliatory measures and its response will be devastating, an Iranian official told Reuters.
07:37 GMT
The current attack on Iran will be far larger in scale than US strikes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities in June last year, American officials told the New York Times.
The strikes were reported to have come after US President Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the progress of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
07:42 GMT
US forces have begun a military operation against Iran, President Trump confirmed in a video posted on Truth Social. He said the aim of the operation was to protect the American people by eliminating what he described as the “threat” posed by the Iranian government.
He said the “major combat operation” against Iran was aimed at its nuclear and missile programs and added that Tehran would never obtain a nuclear weapon.
The White House and Trump administration, via Donald Trump, have just released a video saying they have attacked Iran and "defend the American people and eliminating the Iranian regime...a vicious group of very hard, terrible people". pic.twitter.com/bpEZOXQ69m
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) February 28, 2026
08:01 GMT
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was not harmed in the US and Israeli attack, Mehr news agency reported, citing a source.

Israel is preparing for four days of strikes in the initial phase of the operation against the Islamic Republic, Channel 12 reported.
08:08 GMT
At least five explosions were heard in Tehran and were also reported in other cities – including Qom, Isfahan, Kermanshah and Karaj – Iranian news agencies have reported.
The military operation has been named “Roar of the Lion” for the Israeli phase and “Shield of Judah” for the joint operation with Washington.
© RT
08:16 GMT
An air raid alert has been declared in Israel, with launches detected from Iran, authorities said.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has urged his people to remain steadfast “in the coming days” following the start of the operation against Tehran.
© Social media
08:18 GMT
According to RT sources, the IDF is focusing its strikes on taking out missiles.
A source familiar with the matter also said a security meeting is currently taking place chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
08:27 GMT
‘Thick black smoke RISING’ over Tehran after Israeli strikes, RT correspondent Saman Kojouri reports
‘I’m hearing ANOTHER EXPLOSION right now’ as Iran warns of a ‘decisive response’
08:30 GMT
The US has begun evacuating personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar following the attack on Iran, Reuters has reported, citing a source.
The facility is the largest American military installation in the Middle East, hosting about 10,000 service members. In June 2025, the base was targeted by an Iranian missile strike in response to a US and Israeli attack against nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic.