The world is preparing for Iran’s response after the United States hit three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, with officials telling NBC News that the first 48 hours are particularly concerning.
Israel began more attacks across Iran on Monday, targeting airports in western, eastern, and central Iran, as well as the infamous Evin prison in Tehran.
The Iranian foreign minister met with President Vladimir Putin in Russia on Monday, where he stated that Iran will coordinate its reaction to the US and Israeli assaults.
According to the Iranian Health Ministry, Israeli strikes killed at least 400 people in Iran and injured 3,000 others during the 10-day fight, while Iran’s retaliatory strikes killed at least 24 Israelis.
The United States military base in Erbil, Iraq, remains on high alert, as do many other American sites around the area. It is one of the closest stations to Iran and is likely to be targeted if Iran decides to retaliate against the United States.
Airlines are canceling certain flights to the Gulf and Qatar, and personnel at the US base there have been instructed to shelter in place this morning out of precaution.
Iranians are also getting increasingly apprehensive about how long the intensifying crisis between Israel and Iran will persist, following the closure of companies, offices, and private firms during the previous ten days. The financial hardship on Iran’s inhabitants may worsen if they continue to rely on their savings.
Vice President JD Vance praised President Trump’s national security team on Sunday, following the strikes on Iran carried out Saturday night.
Addressing recent media criticism of the administration’s security efforts, Vance argued that Saturday’s operation demonstrated the team’s readiness and capability to fulfill their duties.
“The operation last night is an incredible testament to American pilots and other service members, from General Caine and General Kurilla on down,” Vance wrote on X.
“While the media has attacked the president’s senior team relentlessly, and tried to sow fake division, last night would have been impossible without perfect coordination and discretion from the president’s national security team. I’m incredibly proud of them, and I know the president is, too,” he added.
The number of bunker busters was updated to 14 by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine during a Pentagon press conference on Sunday.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Caine provided a briefing Sunday morning following a series of strikes against three principal Iranian nuclear weapons facilities just hours before.
Both men revealed details of “Operation Midnight Hammer,” which targeted facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, utilizing B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. submarines.
The operation involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, including a number of B-2 bombers that were sent over the Pacific as a “decoy,” they said. Meanwhile, other B-2s were tasked with dropping more than a dozen massive “bunker buster” munitions on the Fordow and Natanz facilities, as the Tomahawks were used at Isfahan.
The operation commenced overnight Friday into Saturday morning, Caine said during a Pentagon news conference. B-2 bombers departed from the U.S., with some flying west as a decoy while the remainder “proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight.”
Caine said a US submarine “launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets” at Isfahan.
As the B-2s entered Iranian airspace, the US “employed several deception tactics, including decoys, as the fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft pushed out in front of the strike package at high altitude and high speed, sweeping in front of the package for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats,” Caine said.
He added that upon approach of the Natanz and Fordow facilities, the US employed “high-speed suppression weapons” with fighter aircraft to “ensure safe passage” of the bombers.
