US-Israeli military campaign against Iran enters third day of strikes

Iranian counterattacks spread March 2 across the Middle East into Israel, American bases, and several Gulf states. Six U.S. soldiers have died since the initial joint Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran, according to March 2 reports.

More than 1,250 targets in Iran have been struck, U.S. Central Command said in a March 2 social media post. They include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters, command and control centers, ballistic missile sites, navy ships, and communication infrastructure. U.S. Central Command added that the Iranian regime now has no ships in the Gulf of Oman; two days earlier, it reportedly had 11.

Three U.S. F-15 Eagle fighter jets were shot down late March 1 by Kuwaiti air defenses in what the U.S. Central Command described in a press release as an “apparent friendly fire incident.” All six aircrew members aboard the aircraft were recovered and are in stable condition, according to the release.

The U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began in the early hours of Feb. 28 following weeks of negotiations between Iran and the U.S. The Trump administration had demanded that Tehran give up its nuclear capabilities and ordered a significant military buildup in the region. 

The U.S. confirmed the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the initial strikes, and President Donald Trump told FOX News’ Bret Baier March 2 that U.S. and Israeli forces killed 49 of Iran’s most senior leaders. Iranian state media later reported that Khamenei’s wife also died from injuries sustained in the attack. 

Tehran has since launched retaliatory missile and drone barrages against Israel and other targets across the Middle East. In addition to Israel, eight countries have reported attacks by Iran: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. 

Mounting death toll

Casualties are climbing on multiple fronts. In Iran, the Red Crescent Society reported at least 555 deaths from the strikes, according to CBS News. Over the weekend, a strike hit a local all-girls school in Iran, killing at least 80 people, as Zeale News previously reported. It is unclear who launched the strike. In Israel, 11 people have reportedly been killed by Iranian missiles. 

Six U.S. service members have been killed in action, U.S. Central Command announced March 2. The military said U.S. forces recovered the remains of two service members who were previously unaccounted for after Iran’s initial retaliatory strikes, bringing the U.S. death tally from four to six. The military said it will withhold the identities of the deceased until 24 hours after next-of-kin notification.

In Lebanon, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel, prompting Israeli strikes that killed at least 31 people and injured more than 100, according to a March 2 report from the Lebanese Public Health Ministry. The Israeli Air Force said on X that it eliminated the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut. 

Additional fatalities have been reported in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain, NBC News reported. 

Iran says it is ready for ‘long war,’ names interim leadership

In Iran, senior security official Ali Larijani wrote on X that the country has “prepared itself for a long war.” 

He added, “We will fiercely defend ourselves and our six thousand years old civilization regardless of costs and will make the enemies sorry for their miscalculation.” 

In a separate post, Larijani accused Trump of turning “America First” into “Israel First” and claimed American soldiers were being sacrificed “for Israel’s power-hungry ambitions with new fabrications,” according to an unofficial translation.

Over the weekend, Iran announced an interim leadership structure composed of senior regime figures to run the country until a new supreme leader is chosen, The Hill reported. 

Trump administration outlines objectives

Trump has floated several possible timelines regarding the campaign. In his latest March 2 update from the White House, as Zeale News previously reported, he predicted the military operation would last four to five weeks but said U.S. forces are prepared for “far longer” operations. American forces are “substantially ahead” of schedule but will do “whatever it takes” to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, Trump added.

He also laid out four main objectives for the campaign: destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and launch capacity, sinking Iranian naval vessels, ensuring the regime never obtains a nuclear weapon, and preventing it from continuing to “arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”

Before his White House remarks, Trump spoke to several news outlets about the operations. He told CNN the U.S. is “knocking the crap” out of Iran and that the “big wave hasn’t even happened” yet. In an interview with The New York Post, Trump said he has not ruled out deploying ground troops to Iran “if necessary.” 

Baier said that Trump told him he plans to use the Jan. 3 U.S. operation in Venezuela – in which U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and helped install his successor – as a “template” for the campaign in Iran. 

On March 2, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth defended the strikes in his first public briefing since the attacks, saying Iranian officials spent weeks stalling during the recent rounds of U.S. negotiations. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, speaking alongside Hegseth, said the U.S. expects to endure additional casualties and added that the objectives will take “some time” and be “difficult and gritty work” in some cases. He confirmed the military is building up more forces in the region but declined to provide specifics. 

Trump has previously suggested overthrowing Iran’s leadership. In his initial announcement about the strikes, he called on Iranians to take over their country’s government. However, other officials, including Hegseth, have argued that the military campaign is not a regime change operation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the same day that while Trump “would love for the people of Iran to use this as an opportunity to rise up and remove these leaders,” the operation’s primary goal is to eliminate the country’s ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy.

Rubio also framed the strikes as necessary to prevent greater American casualties, saying the administration “knew that there was going to be an Israeli action” that would “precipitate an attack against American forces” because Iran had made clear it would “respond against the United States” if it came under attack by any country. “We knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks,” he explained, “we would suffer higher casualties.”

Just before the joint Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran, Oman Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi – the primary mediator in negotiations with Iran – had announced a “breakthrough” in the talks. As Zeale News reported, Albusaidi said Iran had agreed to “never ever have nuclear material that will create a bomb” and to a policy of “zero stockpiling.” A peace agreement was “within reach,” he said.

Neither Israeli nor U.S. officials acknowledged that development, and they launched the war against Iran hours later.

>> Arlington bishop joins Pope Leo, US bishops in appeal for peace after Iran strikes <<