There was no mercy in Donald Trump’s words on Friday, as the US president described Iranian leaders as “deranged scumbags,” vowed intensified strikes, and declared it a personal honor to oversee their deaths. His statements came as American and Israeli aircraft conducted wave after wave of airstrikes on Tehran and other Iranian cities, leaving residents describing their worst night yet in a war that has already cost Iran over 1,300 lives. Trump gave no indication that he was considering any pause or negotiated resolution.
Tehran residents described a city consumed by the sounds and damage of constant bombardment. A 42-year-old shopkeeper said she no longer even heard the approach of individual drones because the explosions had become so continuous. She described taping her windows with newspaper, losing sleep every night, and fearing that the city would soon lose electricity entirely as temperatures dropped. A retired professor described begging the world to stop the violence, unable to leave and unable to help her sick family members escape.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that Iranian leadership was hidden underground and described new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei as wounded and likely disfigured. Hegseth noted that Khamenei’s only recent communication was a written statement with no voice and no video, which he characterized as weak. Combined US and Israeli strikes had exceeded 15,000 enemy targets since the conflict began, with Israel alone confirming over 200 individual strikes in the last 24-hour cycle.
The conflict’s geographic footprint continued to expand. Lebanon lost more than eight people to Israeli strikes on Sidon, with the overall national death toll exceeding 600 and 800,000 displaced. Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, injuring about 60. Saudi Arabia intercepted close to 50 Iranian drones. Qatar ordered partial evacuations of Doha before missile interceptions were confirmed. Two Omanis died in drone crashes. Debris struck a Dubai financial district building.
Trump’s late announcement that Kharg Island had been militarily obliterated, followed by a warning to Iran about its oil infrastructure, set the stage for a potentially even more destructive phase of the conflict. Six US service members died in a refuelling aircraft crash in Iraq, and France lost a soldier to a militia drone in the same country. European governments moved quietly to negotiate safe passage for their ships through diplomatic back-channels, hoping to carve out some humanitarian and economic breathing room from a war showing no signs of stopping.