President Donald Trump on Saturday said 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. Trump later joined grieving families in Delaware as the remains of the first American service members killed in the war with Iran returned to the U.S. after a drone struck their operations center in Kuwait.
As the U.S. and Israeli operation continued into its second week, several targets within Iran were hit Saturday. An oil storage facility in Tehran province was targeted, sparking a retaliatory strike by Iran against an Israeli oil refinery.
Speaking to reporters Saturday afternoon, Trump said Iran was responsible for the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran and dismissed reports that Russia is aiding Iran with targeting information, saying that “if they are” providing that information “it’s not helping.” The president also opened the door to the idea of U.S. troops retrieving enriched uranium at Iran’s nuclear sites, saying, “We haven’t gone after it but it’s something we can do later on.”
Here’s what else to know about the war in the Middle East and the view from Washington.
Trump attends dignified transfer
Trump honored the six service members at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday alongside their families, senior administration officials and several elected officials. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. 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 points to Iran in strike on girls’ elementary school
As no party in the conflict has claimed responsibility for the attack in southern Iran on Feb. 28, Trump said “in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran” and that the country has “no accuracy whatsoever” with its munitions. The U.S. military has said it was investigating the incident in Minab.Speaking alongside Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “We’re certainly investigating, but the only side that targets civilians is Iran.” At least 175 people, many of them children, were killed in the attack on the school for girls in Minab, Iranian authorities said. The Washington Post could not independently verify this figure.
Human Rights Watch said earlier Saturday that the strike should be investigated as a war crime. “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 group said that satellite imagery, as well as video taken in the aftermath, suggests 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.”
Trump rules out potential involvement of Kurdish forces
Trump also told reporters that he does not want Kurdish minority leaders to get involved in the ongoing conflict. “We’re very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don’t want to make the war any more complex than it already is. … I have ruled it out. I don’t want the Kurds going in,” Trump said. “I don’t want to see the Kurds get hurt and killed.”
Earlier this week, Trump offered “extensive U.S. aircover” and other backing for anti-regime Iranian Kurds to take over portions of western Iran, according to multiple people familiar with the effort.
Trump warns of expanded targets in Iran
Trump said in a Truth Social post on that Iran would “be hit very hard” on Saturday, referencing a televised message from Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who had rejected the idea of giving up the fight. Trump had earlier called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
“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.
Pezeshkian had 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.
Iranian strikes hit the region
Still, Iran said it launched “large-scale” strikes on American positions throughout the region and Israel. Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, wroteon X on Saturday, “Regional countries must either prevent the US from using their territory against Iran, or we will have no choice but to do it ourselves.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a refinery in Haifa, Israel, in what it said was a response to Saturday’s targeting of the oil storage facility in Tehran province.
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. 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.
Wave of strikes hits Iran
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.
Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported that an oil storage facility in Tehran province had been struck, and an Israeli military spokesperson confirmed attacks on “several fuel depots used by the military forces” of Iran.
Fighting continues in Lebanon, leaving mass displacement
Israeli strikes continued in Lebanon, 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 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 been carrying out heavy strikes against the suburbs of Beirut as recently as Saturday night.
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.
What else to know
- 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 United Kingdom’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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