Trump blamed Iran for the school bombing, contradicting preliminary findings that indicated a U.S. munition may have been responsible, sources have said.
What to know
- DIGNIFIED TRANSFER: A military aircraft carrying the remains of U.S. service members killed in the Middle East arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. President Donald Trump and other administration officials attended the dignified transfer ceremony.
- IRAN STEPS BACK: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the country will “no longer attack neighboring countries or launch missiles unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries.” He also rejected Trump’s call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
- TRUMP VOWS MORE STRIKES: “Today Iran will be hit very hard,” Trump said on social media this morning, adding that “areas and groups of people” in Iran are “under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death.”
- SCHOOL STRIKE INVESTIGATION: It looks increasingly likely that a U.S. munition was responsible for a strike on a school in Iran, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the preliminary findings of the U.S. investigation said. More than 160 people, including children, died in the strike.
- IRAN’S FUTURE LEADER: The clerics choosing the new figurehead after the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were making plans to “introduce the future leader,” state media reported. Trump has that Iran should have a “good leader” and that he has some names in mind.
- AMERICANS STRANDED: Thousands of American citizens remain stranded in the Middle East as Iran has continued to strike Gulf nations.
- DEATH TOLL: Hundreds of people have been killed across the Middle East. In Iran, at least 940 have been killed by Israeli and American strikes, Iranian state media reported, and 11 have died in Israel as Iran fired back. And in Lebanon, 217 people have been killed by Israeli strikes.
Satelite images show damage to Tehran airport after strikes
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows the aftermath of a series of airstrikes on Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport overnight on Saturday.
The images show more than a dozen aircraft destroyed, pieces of the planes scattered across the scorched tarmac.
The U.K. readying an aircraft carrier, but Trump rejects such help
Jean-Nicholas Fievet and Dennis Romero
The United States’ closest ally is readying an aircraft carrier for possible deployment to the Middle East, but President Trump said today the U.S. doesn’t need the help in fighting with Iran.
A U.K. defense official confirmed the Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales was the subject of increased readiness, but that any decision to sail to the Middle East or eastern Mediterranean has not been made. The carrier is moored in Portsmouth, England, where it was undergoing maintenance.
Speaking on Air Force One today, Trump rejected the possibility of carrier help from the U.K.
“We don’t need them,” he told reporters. “It’s not the right time. It would have been nice to have had them two weeks ago.”
In a post earlier on Truth Social, Trump referenced the reports and said, “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
On the day the war started one week ago, the United States requested access to U.K. airbases in Cyprus and on Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean, to use them to strike Iranian ballistic missile sites, according to a person familiar with the matter. U.K. officials granted the request the next day.
Trump says it was Iran that bombed elementary school, contradicting early analysis
Trump told reporters today that the U.S. is not responsible for the bombing that destroyed an elementary school in southern Iran that left at least 168 dead.
The president’s comments contradict preliminary findings that a U.S. munition may have been involved in the strike, sources have told NBC News.
“Did the United States bomb a girl’s elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people?” a reporter asked Trump during a press gaggle on board Air Force One.
“Based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” the president responded.
Asked if that was true, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that they are investigating “but the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
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Oil depots in Iran hit by airstrikes
Jean-Nicholas Fievet, Colin Sheeley and Nollaig O’Connor
Several oil depots in Iran were hit by airstrikes today, according to semiofficial news agency Fars and an Iranian oil company.
Two of the depots that Fars said were struck, the Sharan and Shar Rey facilities, are in different parts of Tehran. Video from the city showed large fires and an orange sky. One showed huge plumes of dark smoke visible from a highway.
Fars also reported a depot was hit in the nearby city of Karaj.
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said missiles struck several facilities in Tehran and Alborz provinces and that firefighting teams were working to put the fires out.
Netanyahu says Israel has ‘many more targets’ in Iran
Mirna Alsharif and Omer Bekin
Netanyahu signaled that Israel’s campaign in Iran is far from over, warning that additional strikes are coming to destabilize the country’s leadership.
“We have an organized plan with many surprises to destabilize the regime and enable change,” Netanyahu said in a televised address earlier, adding that Israel still has “many more targets” in Iran.
“We are continuing with full force,” Netanyahu said.
‘We thought we were going to die’: American tourist returns home after week stranded in Dubai
Freddie Clayton
American tourist Michaela Malchiodi said she initially thought reports of the escalating conflict were “a joke” before the situation in Dubai suddenly became frightening.
Malchiodi, 23, a marketing associate, had traveled to the city for a two-week vacation. She arrived Valentine’s Day with plans to return to Florida on Feb. 28, the day the war started.
The situation escalated while she and her boyfriend were at a shopping center watching news reports of the conflict. Later, when her flight home was canceled, the couple received an emergency alert that left them fearing the worst.
“That was probably the most scary point for us,” she told NBC News. “It literally said on the Amber Alert, it was like missiles coming or something like that.”Show more
Israel says it has launched 3,400 strikes in Iran since start of war
Omer Bekin
Israeli military spokesperson Effie Defrin said the IDF has launched roughly 3,400 strikes across Iran since the start of Operation Roaring Lion a week ago, putting more than 150 Iranian air defense systems out of service.
The IDF has also dropped about 7,500 munitions on targets across Iran, Defrin said, adding that the operation has now moved into a new phase focused on expanding strikes on major regime production sites, including facilities in Parchin and Shahroud tied to ballistic and cruise missile production.
Israel’s campaign in Iran “may continue for some time, but it is necessary,” he said.
Photos: Satellite images show airstrike damage at Iran’s Bushehr naval base
New before-and-after satellite images taken on Feb. 27 and March 7 show damage from airstrikes at Iran’s Bushehr naval base, where a ship can be seen capsized following the strikes.
One person killed in Dubai after fragment falls on a vehicle
Ammar Cheikh Omar and Mirna Alsharif
One person was killed in Dubai after falling debris from a missile that was shot down fell onto a car in the Al Barsha neighborhood, according to the Dubai Media Office.
The victim, who was not identified, is of Pakistani origin, the media office said.
A free Iran is their shared dream. But the diaspora remains torn on the best path forward.
The mix of joy and anxiety among the Iranian diaspora in recent days reflects the complicated emotions many feel as violence escalates in the Middle East — especially those whose families fled the theocratic regime that took power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Some people are so aggrieved at this regime that they say, ‘At any cost, come and destroy this regime even if it means destroying parts of the country,’” said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University. “Others want to get rid of the regime but not at the expense of war.”
The divisions mark a shift from earlier this year, when the diaspora appeared united in supporting Iranians protesting the government’s brutal crackdown. While many share the same goal — a free Iran — they disagree sharply on how to achieve it.
Photos: Israeli police officers clash with protesters during a small anti-war protest in Tel Aviv
Israeli police officers clashed with and arrested protesters during a small anti-war protest in Tel Aviv today.
Explosions in Tehran turn the sky orange
Daniele Hamamdjian
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
Multiple explosions were heard in Tehran, with blasts lighting up the sky and turning it orange, according to reports from the Iranian capital.
Semiofficial news agency Mehr News confirmed explosions in the city, though it was not immediately clear what caused them or what areas may have been targeted.
Skies above Tehran ‘turning orange’ amid U.S. strikes
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Planes carrying fallen U.S. service members arrives at Dover Air Force Base
Megan ShannonMegan Shannon is an Associate Producer for the White House Unit.
A military aircraft carrying the remains of U.S. service members killed in the Kuwait has arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where Trump and other administration officials are attending a dignified transfer.
The C-17 aircraft carrying the transfer cases arrived at the base this afternoon, according to the pool reporter.
Dignified transfers, or the solemn return of fallen service members to U.S. soil, usually take place at Dover Air Force Base, the military’s primary mortuary facility.
