Trump threatens Iran with force ‘never seen before’ as missiles bombard Israel for second day

US President Donald Trump threatened early Sunday morning to hit Iran with unprecedented force after Tehran warned it would step up attacks in retaliation for the killing of its supreme leader and fired successive volleys of rockets at Israel for a second consecutive day Sunday.

In Iran, the Israel Defense Forces continued to carry out strikes on military sites, including a massive blast in Tehran. The army announced that it had dropped over 1,000 bombs in just over 24 hours of attacks that kicked off Saturday morning with a strike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.

“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social social network. “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”

His comments came just a few hours after the Iranian regime confirmed that its longtime leader Khamenei had been killed in a strike on his office early Saturday morning.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Sunday morning in a video carried on state TV that Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have “crossed our red lines” and “will suffer the consequences.”

The elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed in a statement Sunday that Iran’s armed forces would soon retaliate again with the “most ferocious offensive operation in history” against US bases and Israel.

“The hand of revenge of the Iranian nation for a severe, decisive and regrettable punishment for the murderers of the Imam of the Ummah will not let go of them,” the IRGC said in a statement.

Waves of sirens rang out repeatedly across much of central, southern and northern Israel on Saturday night and Sunday morning as Iran fired ballistic missiles at the country, sending millions of Israelis to shelter. Iran’s state broadcaster said 27 US bases in the region, as well as Israel’s military headquarters and a defense industries complex in Tel Aviv, were among the targets in the new wave of strikes.

There were no reports of impacts in residential areas or direct injuries following the salvos, medics said. Magen David Adom said it treated people lightly hurt by falling while running to bomb shelters.

Police said they received reports of missile and interceptor fragments that landed in the Jerusalem area, and the Fire and Rescue Service said it was responding to a gas leak caused by falling shrapnel in the West Bank.

In contrast to the large barrages fired at Israel during the 12-day war with Iran in June, most salvos Saturday and Sunday have consisted of small number of missiles, usually three at a time, with breaks of a few minutes between each launch, according to the IDF.

The attacks have caused only a small number of injuries, aside from a particularly large barrage of some 20 missiles toward the Tel Aviv area Saturday night in which one projectile managed to evade air defenses, hitting near a residential building and killing a woman.

The slain woman, a foreign caregiver for an elderly woman, did not manage to reach a shelter in time, the military said Sunday after an initial investigation. The woman she was caring for was extracted by rescue workers from the rubble alive.

The Home Front Command has determined that a complete Iranian ballistic missile — not fragments — struck next to the apartment building, causing extensive damage and a large crater. Dozens more were injured in the strike.

Meanwhile, the IDF said it targeted Iran’s ballistic missile and air defense systems in western and central Iran with strikes on around 30 targets Sunday morning.

An enormous explosion rocked Iran’s capital Sunday as the Israeli military said it was targeting the heart of the city. The blast in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground.

The military later said it had carried out an airstrike against a “headquarters of the Iranian terror regime” in Tehran, releasing video showing two buildings being destroyed in blasts.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said midday Sunday that the Israeli Air Force was striking Tehran with “stand-in” munitions, meaning those dropped directly over their targets.

“For the first time in Operation Roaring Lion, air force aircraft are operating in ‘stand-in’ over the skies of Tehran in a powerful strike against regime and repression targets,” Katz wrote on X.

Israeli strikes in Tehran in the past day had used stand-off weapons, which are launched from a distance and generally have smaller warheads. The ability to launch stand-in bombs comes after the military said it established air superiority and “opened the way to Tehran.”

Katz said “continuous powerful strikes” will now take place in Tehran.

The IDF said Sunday that Israeli Air Force fighter jets had dropped more than 1,200 pieces of munition during strikes in Iran over the past day.

The Israeli military earlier said some 200 Israeli fighter jets were taking part in the campaign aimed at harming Iran’s ballistic missile and aerial defense systems.

Targets in the Israeli campaign also include Iran’s symbols of government and intelligence targets, according to an official briefed on the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information on the attack.

In southern Iran, at least 115 people were reported killed when a girls’ school was struck, and dozens more were wounded, the local governor told Iranian state TV. US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said he was “aware of reports” that a girls’ school was struck and that officials were looking into them.

An Iranian diplomat told the United Nations Security Council that hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded in the strikes.

The IDF also confirmed that it killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in an airstrike in Tehran Saturday morning.

“Ali Khamenei was targeted in a precise, large-scale operation carried out by the Israeli Air Force, guided by accurate IDF intelligence, while he was in his central leadership compound in the heart of Tehran, where he was together with additional senior officials,” the military said in a statement, after Iran confirmed that Khamenei had been killed.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday morning that “justice has been served” after the killing of Khamenei.

“He who worked to destroy Israel was destroyed. Justice has been done, and the axis of evil sustained a crushing blow,” he said.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader show that those who harm Americans must pay a price.

“If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” Hegseth wrote on X.

Iran also continued to launch attacks on Arab countries in the Gulf region that are considered US allies. Repeated explosions were heard in Dubai as well as in Doha and the Bahraini capital Manama Sunday morning.

Loud explosions were also heard near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. An AFP journalist reported seeing thick black smoke rising from the airport area.

The US military did not report any casualties in the strikes on American bases or targets.

The United Arab Emirates said that at least one person was killed in Abu Dhabi. Two people were also killed in airstrikes on an Iraqi military base housing the powerful pro-Iran group Kataeb Hezbollah, while Qatar said falling missile fragments injured at least eight people.

Smoke poured overnight from US bases in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

In Iran, the Red Crescent said on Saturday strikes had left 201 people dead and injured hundreds more. The Iranian judiciary said one strike that hit a school in the south killed 108 people, although AFP was unable to access the site to verify the toll or the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The joint US-Israeli operation began Saturday morning with smoke rising over Tehran after strikes that Israel said were preemptive.

Shortly after, Trump announced US combat operations, with the goal of “eliminating imminent threats.” At an emergency UN Security Council meeting, US Ambassador Mike Waltz said the operation was aimed at eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities and degrading its military.

Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, the UAE and Israel all closed their airspaces to civilian traffic, at least in part, and multiple airlines canceled flights to the Middle East, sparking chaos for travelers.