The 2026 Iran Battle started on February 28 when the US and ‘Israel’ launched an operation dubbed Epic Fury by the US and Lion’s Roar by ‘Israel’, unleashing almost 900 airstrikes in 12 hours on Iranian missile programs, air defenses, nuclear amenities, navy bases, and management targets.
This direct assault adopted years of shadow battle, together with the first-ever Iran-‘Israel’ missile exchanges in April and October 2024 and a restricted 12-day battle in June 2025 that broken Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile applications.
Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of high officers have been killed within the opening salvo, whereas a US Tomahawk strike on a faculty adjoining to a naval base close to Bandar Abbas killed about 170 civilians, largely kids.
Iran responded inside hours by firing a whole lot of ballistic missiles and launching 1000’s of drones at ‘Israel’, US bases within the Gulf, and targets in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait.
Tehran restricted passage by way of the Strait of Hormuz—by way of which 20% of world oil flows—disrupting transport and spiking oil costs.
The retaliation reignited combating with Hezbollah in Lebanon, prompting ‘Israeli’ strikes there and spreading the battle regionally whereas hitting civilian infrastructure, together with hospitals, airports, and heritage websites.
Over the following three weeks, US-‘Israeli’ forces performed sustained air campaigns that destroyed a lot of Iran’s air-defense community, missile manufacturing websites and navy belongings.
Iran appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as the brand new supreme chief, however pragmatic senior official Ali Larijani was assassinated in an ‘Israeli’ strike on March 17.
Greater than 80,000 civilian websites have been hit, together with 260 medical amenities and UNESCO-listed buildings, inflicting widespread blackouts, gasoline shortages, poisonous air pollution, and over 2,000 complete deaths throughout Iran, ‘Israel’, Lebanon, and Gulf states.
The battle remained lively in its fourth week with ongoing US-‘Israeli’ airstrikes on remaining Iranian targets and Iranian retaliatory barrages, together with latest cluster-munition assaults on ‘Israel’ and a failed long-range missile try at Diego Garcia.
Trump has threatened to destroy Iran’s energy crops except the Strait of Hormuz reopens absolutely however has signaled doable winding down or offers, which Tehran denies pursuing.
