Asiye Latife Yilmaz
28 February 2026•Update: 28 February 2026
ISTANBUL
The newest strikes are expected to be far more extensive than last June’s attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
The initial focus of the strikes, at the moment, is Iran’s military infrastructure, the report said, citing US officials.
Besides its nuclear facilities, Iran is believed to have more than 2,000 missiles, primarily short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, scattered at launch sites across the country, US military officials also said.
Citing three Israeli security officials familiar with the operations, the newspaper also said that a central goal of the first joint wave of strikes in Iran was to hit as many leaders as possible.
The officials said that similar to the previous strikes in June last year, planners aimed for at least partial surprise, believing they had to target senior Iranian officials in the first strikes before increased security measures made it harder.
Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was not notified of the strikes in advance, his spokesman told the newspaper.
Reed also warned in a statement on Friday before the attack began that “if war is unnecessary, it should be avoided.”
He said Congress had “received no real briefings or intelligence” on a possible attack and that while Iran posed a “serious” and “destabilizing” threat to the US and its allies, the administration had presented no “strategic justification for preemptive strikes.”
Israel launched an attack against Iran early Saturday under the name ‘Lion’s Roar,’ declaring a “special and immediate” state of emergency across the country.
Trump later said the US had launched “major combat operations” in Iran.
Last June, the US struck three Iranian nuclear sites towards the end of the 12-day Israel-Iran war.
