US President Donald Trump has posted a video message addressing the American public as the military campaign in the Middle East intensifies. In a six-minute address shared on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said that “in the past 46 hours the United States and its partners have launched Operation Epic Fury, one of the largest, most complex, most overwhelming military offensives the world has ever seen.”
He outlined what he described as a sweeping series of strikes across Iran and warned that there would “likely be more” American casualties before the operation concludes.
The video was released hours after US Central Command announced the deaths of three Americans. “As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives,” Trump said.
He added that the United States would do “everything possible” to prevent further casualties, but warned: “America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against basically, civilization.”
BREAKING: U.S. President Donald Trump releases 6 minute video statement on Iran: pic.twitter.com/zK2Jvx9Wym
— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) March 1, 2026
Trump repeated that the US would not allow Iran to develop long-range missiles or nuclear weapons. He also called on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian military and police “to lay down your arms and receive full immunity, or face certain death.”
Latest Developments in Iran War
A day after a joint US-Israeli operation unleashed a wave of bombing across Iran and killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the attacks intensified on Sunday by land and sea.
Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and several Persian Gulf countries, while the United States said it had hit more than 1,000 targets in Iran and confirmed its first casualties of the conflict. Amid concerns of a wider regional war, Trump said Iran’s new leadership wanted to speak with him and that he was willing to do so. “They should have done it sooner,” he told The Atlantic magazine from his residence in Florida. Iranian officials did not publicly respond to the remarks.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump spoke on Sunday with the leaders of Bahrain, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The calls came as the regional balance of power was shaken by the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei in an Israeli missile strike reportedly based on US intelligence. Following the strike, Trump urged the Iranian people to “take control.”
The Pentagon said three US troops were killed in action at a base in Kuwait on Sunday, marking the first American deaths in the war with Iran. Official reports cited by The New York Times said at least nine people were killed in Israel and at least four others were killed in attacks across the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
The Israeli military said its air force was continuing to bombard what it described as “the heart of Tehran”. It said Iranian missile launchers, air defence systems, command centres, government headquarters and other military infrastructure had been struck.
A US Central Command official said American forces were continuing strikes targeting Iran’s ballistic missile programme and attempting to sink elements of the Iranian navy. US stealth bombers armed with 2,000-pound bombs hit what the military described as “hardened” missile facilities. The US military said it had destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and sunk at least one warship.
Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s senior national security official, Ali Larijani, said an interim committee would run the country until a successor to the supreme leader is chosen.
