The U.S. war in Iran began Saturday, Feb. 28, with a “massive, overwhelming” strike that involved thousands of American servicemembers, hundreds of planes and two aircraft carriers, and hit more than a thousand targets across the country, the Pentagon’s top general told reporters.
The military received its “final go order” from President Donald Trump a day earlier on Feb. 27 at 3:38 p.m., Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference March 2.
Trump’s message to troops: “Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck,” Caine said, using the Pentagon’s operational name for the attack.
The U.S. military’s first actions were cyberattacks aimed at jamming Iran’s ability to communicate and coordinate, Caine said.
The attack officially began at 9:45 a.m. local time in Iran’s capital of Tehran, touched off by a “trigger event” conducted by Israel’s military, he said.
More than 100 U.S. aircraft, including fighter jets, tankers used to refuel planes in the air and electronic attack aircraft lifted off in a “single synchronized wave,” he said. U.S. Navy ships launched Tomahawk missiles that struck southern Iran. In a maneuver similar to the Trump administration’s first attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, B-2 bomber jets launched from the U.S. mainland flew for 37 hours round trip to drop more “penetrating munitions” on underground facilities, also in Iran’s southern flank. The United States hit “more than a thousand targets in the first 24 hours,” according to Caine.
“This marked the culmination of months, and in some cases, years, of deliberate planning,” he said.
Iran’s counterattacks killed four Americans, and the military of U.S. ally Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American fighter jets. Iran launched a massive, retaliatory barrage of missiles and drones at U.S. allies throughout the Middle East, targeting many U.S. bases and tens of thousands of troops scattered across the region. Some have crashed into civilian airports and hotels. Caine said Patriot and THAAD air defense systems had intercepted “hundreds of ballistic missiles.”
The military has confirmed the deaths of four American servicemembers who Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said were killed when an Iranian missile broke through air defenses and hit a “tactical operations center.” The fourth American to die was “severely wounded” and succumbed to injuries on Monday, March 2, U.S. Central Command announced.
Kuwait’s military mistakenly shot down three U.S. F-15E fighter jets late on Sunday, March 1. Six American servicemembers who ejected from the planes were “safely recovered” and are in “stable condition,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Iran is rapidly growing. Iran’s state media has reported 555 fatalities since the U.S. and Israeli attack began.
Pressed on how long the war would continue, Hegseth and Caine would not say. The USS Gerald Ford, an aircraft carrier that President Donald Trump deployed to the Caribbean to buttress the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, has arrived in the Middle East, joining the USS Abraham Lincoln. More tactical aviation forces are flowing into the region, Caine said. He added that combat capacity was “just about where we want to be.”
Hegseth, who heads the newly rebranded Department of War, noted, “An effort of this scope will include casualties.”