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Trump Vows to Expand Strikes in Iran After Killing Khamenei in Epic Fury

Trump Vows to Expand Strikes in Iran After Killing Khamenei in Epic Fury
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Standing on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base beside the flag-draped remains of six U.S. service members, President Donald Trump vowed on Saturday to “hit Iran very hard” and expand the list of targets in a war that has already killed hundreds in Iran and spilled across much of the Middle East washingtonpost +1. The pledge came eight days after the United States and Israel launched a massive campaign, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and struck more than 1,000 targets across the country apnews +1.

From Decapitation Strike to Open-Ended War

The conflict began before dawn on February 28, when coordinated U.S.–Israeli strikes hit leadership compounds, missile sites and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and other cities, killing Khamenei and dozens of senior officials in what analysts described as an unprecedented “decapitation” attack apnews +2. Washington later framed the campaign as a necessary effort to eliminate an “imminent” nuclear and ballistic-missile threat, with the White House declaring that Operation Epic Fury would “crush” Iran’s regime and cripple its military capabilities time.

Iran responded within hours, launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel and U.S.-aligned Gulf states, as well as at shipping lanes, drawing countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait directly into the firing line bbc +1. U.S. forces escalated further, using B‑2 stealth bombers to hit buried missile infrastructure and torpedoes from a submarine to sink the frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, an attack Sri Lanka said left dozens of Iranian sailors dead or missing latimes +1.

U.S. Politics: Broad War Powers, Uneasy Public

Trump’s visit to Dover followed an Iranian drone and missile strike on a makeshift U.S. operations center at Kuwait’s Shuaiba port that killed six American service members and wounded others, the first U.S. fatalities of the war commonslibrary. Even as he honored the dead, the president promised to expand the target list to include “areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” language critics seized on as evidence of a widening, open-ended campaign washingtonpost +1.

On Capitol Hill, attempts to rein in the White House have so far failed. Senate and House efforts to invoke the War Powers Resolution and limit further action were defeated by votes of 53–47 and 219–212, respectively, leaving Trump with broad latitude to continue operations without new authorization cbsnews. Democratic leaders and a handful of Republicans argued the strikes amounted to “acts of war unauthorized by Congress,” warning of a prolonged conflict with no clear endgame, even as many Republicans and some U.S. allies praised the operation as a decisive blow against a long-time adversary bbc +1. Polls cited by lawmakers suggested roughly three-fifths of Americans disapproved of the war, underscoring the political risk if casualties mount cbsnews.

A Fragmented International Response

Abroad, the reaction has been fractured. Israel has embraced the campaign, intensifying its own strikes in Iran and Lebanon and promising “nonstop” operations against Hezbollah bbc +1. Iran, which declared 40 days of mourning for Khamenei and branded the attacks “illegal” and “illegitimate,” has vowed to keep firing missiles and drones until U.S. forces withdraw and sanctions are lifted bbc +1.

European governments have been split between legal misgivings and strategic alignment. Britain and several NATO allies have permitted use of bases and deployed air and naval assets to bolster missile defenses in the Gulf, while France and some EU officials questioned the legality of the initial strikes and urged urgent diplomacy bbc +1. Gulf monarchies, many of which reported civilian casualties from Iranian barrages, condemned Tehran’s attacks but privately complained they were given little warning before the U.S.–Israeli operation that turned them into front-line targets cbsnews +1. Russia and China, meanwhile, denounced the strikes as reckless and warned of broader destabilization aljazeera.

The Bigger Picture

Trump has said the war could last “four to five weeks” but has also insisted the U.S. has the capacity to fight “far longer,” even hinting he wants a say in choosing Iran’s next leader globalnews +1. With Iran’s leadership in flux, missile and drone attacks still crossing borders, and Congress unable or unwilling to assert tighter control, the decision to “expand” strikes signaled that the conflict was not entering a de-escalatory phase but a more dangerous one: a regional war increasingly shaped by shifting U.S. objectives, fragmented alliances, and the risk that more bodies will pass through Dover’s mortuary before any political settlement comes into view. latimes +1