US-Israel Attack on Iran:
The US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran, reportedly killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (a Shia cleric), and targeting key strategic facilities while calling for regime change.The joint offensive, referred to as Operation Epic Fury by the US and Operation Lion’s Roar by Israel, marked a major escalation in regional tensions.Iran retaliated through Operation True Promise 4, launching missile attacks against Israel and nearby Gulf states. The escalation comes despite recent progress in US–Iran nuclear talks, raising fears of a wider West Asian conflict with significant global implications.US and Israel Attack on Iran: Dissatisfied with the limited impact of the 2025 strikes and citing Iran’s continuing nuclear ambitions, the US viewed Iran’s large arsenal of ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones as an intolerable threat to US forces in the Gulf and regional allies.
Unlike earlier operations focused on deterrence, the February 2026 strikes aimed at decapitation.The attacks reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with Washington calculating that removing him could fracture the highly centralized Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).The US military action was driven by a complex matrix of nuclear concerns, ambitions for regime change, domestic political pressure, deterrence calculations, and the escalation of strategic commitments.
