U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to avenge the first American military deaths in the escalating war with Iran, declaring that the United States would deliver its “hardest blow” yet as the conflict spreads across West Asia.
The Pentagon confirmed that three US service personnel were killed and five wounded in the operation, codenamed “Epic Fury”, marking the first American fatalities since Washington launched a sweeping campaign alongside Israel aimed at toppling Iran’s clerical leadership.
“Unfortunately, there may be more casualties before it ends. But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the hardest blow to the terrorists who have waged war against civilisation,” AFP reported Trump saying.
In a video address from his residence in Florida, he again urged Iran’s security forces to capitulate.
“I once again urge the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian military and police to lay down their arms and accept full immunity or face certain death,” he said.
Trump indicated he expected the conflict to last approximately four weeks following the large-scale US and Israeli strikes on Saturday that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has responded with missile and drone attacks across the region, striking targets in several West Asian countries.
Iranian barrages killed at least nine people in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh and injured dozens more, while additional strikes were reported in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states.
Air raid sirens also sounded in northern Israel after projectiles were detected from Lebanon, where the Iran-aligned group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for “resisting aggression”.
The United States said it had destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite force central to Iran’s defence establishment and influential in both politics and the economy. United States Central Command stated that the IRGC “no longer has a headquarters”.
Trump said nine Iranian naval vessels had been sunk and that a naval headquarters had been partially destroyed.
Iranian authorities reported extensive casualties from the initial strikes. The Iranian Red Crescent said at least 201 people had been killed and hundreds injured.
The judiciary confirmed that senior adviser Ali Shamkhani and IRGC chief General Mohammad Pakpour were among the dead.
Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, described Khamenei’s killing as “a declaration of war against Muslims” and vowed retaliation. Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned that Iran would respond with force “unlike anything its enemies have experienced before”.
Tehran also announced the temporary appointment of Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to the country’s interim leadership structure pending the selection of a permanent successor.
The conflict has reverberated through global energy markets.
Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and reported attacks on three vessels in the strategic waterway.
Two drones were said to have struck the port of Duqm in Oman, injuring a foreign worker. Iran claimed it had targeted the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, though the Pentagon denied that any missile had come close to the vessel.
In Washington, leading Democrat Hakeem Jeffries criticised the military action as a “reckless decision”, arguing that no imminent threat had justified such pre-emptive strikes.
As missile exchanges continue and regional alliances are tested, the widening confrontation threatens further casualties and deeper instability across the Middle East. - March 2, 2026
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