President Donald Trump joined grieving families in Delaware on Saturday as the remains of the first American service members killed in the war with Iran returned to the United States after a drone struck their operations center in Kuwait.
Ahead of his flight to Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer, Trump told a summit of Latin American leaders in Florida that the six fallen soldiers were “great heroes” who were “coming home in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home.”
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, Sgt. Declan J. Coady, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, Capt. Cody A. Khork, and Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens were killed in the attack.
The Army reservists were serving at a command center that had little overhead protection when a drone hit it on Sunday. Several other service members were seriously wounded in the attack, officials familiar with the incident said.
Trump said early Saturday that the United States would expand its targets in the war in Iran after its president apologized to neighboring countries caught up in the spiraling conflict — but rejected the notion of surrender.
Here’s what else to know about the war in the Middle East as the U.S. and Israel continue strikes into a second week.
Trump warns of more strikes in Iran
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday that “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”
“Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” Trump said in the post, without giving further details.
He referenced a televised message from Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who earlier Saturday had rejected the idea of giving up the fight. Trump had earlier called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Pezeshkian said “there will be no more attacks on neighboring countries and no missile launches, unless attacks originate from those countries against Iran,” according to Iran’s state-run Press TV. Still, the country’s state media on Saturday said Iran was engaged in attacks across the Persian Gulf region and Israel.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, wroteon X on Saturday, “When the enemy attacks us from bases in the region, we respond — and we will continue to respond. This is our right and a standing policy. Regional countries must either prevent the US from using their territory against Iran, or we will have no choice but to do it ourselves.”
Israel, Iran continue widespread strikes
As the war entered its second week, Israel launched a “broad wave” of strikes against Iran, with more than 80 Air Force jets striking Tehran and Isfahan, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets and missile storage units, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Strikes targeted the situation room of the IRGC’s air force, air-defense systems, command centers, weapons storage facilities, and facilities used to manufacture and launch ballistic missiles, according to the IDF.
Israeli Air Force, the IDF said, struck 16 aircraft at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran “belonging to the Quds Force that transferred weapons to Hezbollah.”
Iran also said it launched “large-scale” strikes on American positions throughout the region.
An attack targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday, the first strike on the facility since the conflict began. Incoming projectiles were intercepted. It is not yet clear whether the attack involved rockets or drones.
The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia all reported intercepting attacks. Dubai International Airport temporarily suspended operations “for the safety of passengers, airport staff, and airline crew,” it said in a statement. Iran has attacked 12 countries so far, U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, has said.
In his first public comments since the start of the conflict, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan saidSaturday, “We are in a time of war.”
Fighting continues in Lebanon, leaving mass displacement
Israeli strikes continued in Lebanon on Saturday, after the war with Iran reignited Israel’s long-running fight with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militant group and political party in Lebanon.
The IDF claimed that 170 Hezbollah terror targets were struck in Lebanon over the weekend. Targets included a headquarters used by the IRGC’s air force and rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon. Israeli special forces also attempted to retrieve the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli pilot who went missing in the 1980s after parachuting from a fighter jet that crashed in Lebanon. No findings related to him were located at the search site, the IDF said.
Israel’s military targeted areas in the south and Bekaa Valley region on Saturday and renewed evacuation warnings to all residents south of the Litani River. Hezbollah also reported clashes near the Syrian border and called on residents in northern Israel to evacuate. Israel has carried out heavy strikes against the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Norwegian Refugee Council estimates that some 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 294 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war so far.
Group demands investigation into strike on girls’ school
Human Rights Watch said on Saturday that a Feb. 28 airstrike on a girls’ school in southern Iran should be investigated as a war crime. The Mission of Iran to the United Nations said the strike killed more than 150 children. The Washington Post could not independently verify this figure.
“A prompt and thorough investigation is needed into this attack, including if those responsible should have known that a school was there and that it would be full of children and their teachers before midday,” Sophia Jones, an open source researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.
The watchdog group said that satellite imagery, as well as video taken in the aftermath, suggest the attack “was carried out by highly accurate, guided munitions, rather than errant weapons whose guidance or propulsion systems failed or were otherwise disrupted and randomly struck the area.”
No party in the conflict — neither Iran, the U.S., nor Israel — has claimed responsibility for the attack. The U.S. military has said it is investigating the strike.
What else to know
- Russia is giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say, marking the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating in the conflict, even if indirectly.
- The State Department continues efforts to charter flights to evacuate U.S. citizens, amid criticism it did not provide enough warning before strikes began.
- The U.S. has started using British bases for specific defensive operations to prevent Iran from firing missiles into the region, which is putting British lives at risk, according to the U.K.’s ministry of defense.
Craw reported from London; Soroka reported from Tel Aviv; Haidamous and El Chamaa reported from Beirut; and Shamalakh reported from Cairo.
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