CAIRO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Israel on Saturday launched "major combat operations" against Iran, plunging the war-torn Middle East into a new round of violent conflicts.
Iran has retaliated with a series of counterattacks against Israel and U.S. targets across the region, with explosions reported in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia, among other countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the objective "is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats" from Iran, and the Israeli Defense Ministry said the country launched a "preemptive" strike against Iran "to remove threats to Israel."
In Tehran, missiles hit areas near the offices of both Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian. Several Iranian high-ranking officials were killed, according to the Israeli military. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said almost all Iranian officials, except one or two commanders, are "safe and sound and alive."
More than 20 of Iran's 31 provinces were affected by U.S. and Israeli strikes, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The airstrikes also struck a girls' school in southern Iran, killing at least 85 students, according to local sources. Dozens more are reportedly still trapped under rubble.
"In response to the aggression by the hostile and criminal enemy against the Islamic Republic of Iran," the country's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said, "Iran's large-scale missile and drone attack against Israel has started."
The Iranian armed forces said all U.S. military bases in the region are legitimate targets for Iran. According to Iran's Fars News Agency, Tehran struck military installations in several Gulf Arab countries hosting U.S. military forces, including Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Bahrain. It specifically named Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain as targets.
An IRGC official said Iran had struck 14 U.S. bases and killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers. Yet Al Jazeera cited a spokesperson for the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) as saying that those claims are false.
At least two buildings in the greater Tel Aviv region have been hit by Iranian missiles, according to Israel's Ynet news website. So far no fatalities have been reported.
In Kuwait, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that a drone struck Kuwait International Airport, causing minor injuries to several workers and limited damage to a passenger terminal. UAE state media said one person had been killed in Abu Dhabi, but gave no details.
In response to the sharp regional escalation, Kuwait, Qatar, and Syria, among others, temporarily closed their airspace as a precautionary measure. Several major airlines, including EgyptAir, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, and Saudi Arabian Airlines, canceled a number of flights to key regional hubs due to airspace closures.
The spike in tensions has drawn a flurry of reactions from across the world. In a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the "unprovoked armed attack" by the United States and Israel on Iran, and urged an immediate halt to the strikes.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the escalating tensions risk expanding the scope of the conflict and plunging the entire region into chaos. The only way to ensure security and stability, it added, lies in diplomacy and dialogue.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned Saturday's strikes in the Middle East and urged all parties to return to negotiations, saying that attacks would only bring "death, destruction and human misery."
Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi, the mediator of recent Iranian-U.S. negotiations, expressed his dismay in a post on social media. "Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined," he said, urging the United States not to get sucked in further.
The UN Security Council decided to hold a meeting later in the day regarding the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, where UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will act as the speaker.
The latest flare-up came after the United States and Iran wrapped up their third round of indirect talks earlier this week and agreed to resume negotiations next week.
It is reminiscent of last June when, during negotiations between Washington and Tehran, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran and triggered the "12-day war," during which the United States bombed Iran's critical nuclear facilities. ■
