US joins Israeli bombing campaign against Tehran: LIVE UPDATES

Source: RT News

Date: June 21, 2025

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President Trump has confirmed the first American air raids on targets in Iran

The US military has joined Israeli forces in their week-long airstrike campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites, with President Trump confirming the first US strikes on Sunday.

“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Trump announced in a post on Truth Social, adding that other targets included Natanz and Esfahan.

In the same message, the US leader appeared to urge Tehran not to retaliate and to engage in talks, claiming it was now “time for peace.”

Tehran has previously warned Washington and other third parties against joining the conflict, threatening to target any hostile assets and weapons shipments bound for Israel. A spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthis has also warned that if the US becomes involved, the group “will target its warships in the Red Sea.”

Israel launched its Operation Rising Lion as a “preemptive” strike, allegedly aimed at preventing the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Tehran, which has consistently maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, called the attack an act of war and responded with missile and drone strikes of its own.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 430 Iranians and injured more than 3,500 civilians, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. Israeli officials have reported 25 deaths and over 2,500 injuries.

• 22 June 2025

  02:46 GMT

  President Trump has reiterated his warning to Tehran not to retaliate against the US strikes, issuing an all-caps message on Truth Social.

02:32 GMT

The White House has released photographs taken inside the Situation Room during the US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, offering a rare glimpse into the moment top officials oversaw the operation.

In the images, President Donald Trump is seen seated at the center of the command table, surrounded by key members of his national security team, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles.

• The photos were taken as American aircraft carried out precision bombing raids on Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, in what Trump later described as a “spectacular military success.”

• 02:16 GMT

  President Donald Trump has warned Tehran to “make peace” or face further attacks, just hours after the United States carried out “massive precision strikes” on Iran’s Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.

  
  

  READ MORE: Trump threatens Iran with more strikes (VIDEO)

  
  

  In a televised address from the White House on Saturday night, the US president claimed that told “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

  The US president went on to warn Tehran against retaliation, calling it the “bully of the Middle East.”

  "Iran...must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier," he said.

• 01:57 GMT

  US President Donald Trump hailed the airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as “an amazing success,” in a brief phone interview with Reuters, praising the pilots involved and claiming, “Fordow is gone and the other two are gone now.”

  “They should make peace immediately. They should stop immediately. Otherwise they'll get hit again,” Trump warned Tehran.

• 01:55 GMT

  Mehdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, said Iran had anticipated an attack on the Fordow nuclear site for several nights.

  “The site had been evacuated a long time ago and the damages are not irreversible... You cannot bomb knowledge,” he wrote on social media, according to the New York Post.

• 01:54 GMT

  A senior US official has told Fox News that the strike on Iran’s nuclear facility in Isfahan was likely the most challenging operation among the three sites hit in the US air raid.

  “This was the hardest target,” the official said. “Everyone was talking about and focused on Fordow, but Isfahan was actually the hardest target.”

  While Fordow has long been a focal point in public and diplomatic discourse, the operational complexity and fortified structure of Isfahan made it uniquely difficult to penetrate, and required precision targeting and extensive intelligence to carry out the strike effectively, the unnamed official added.

• 01:39 GMT

  President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after the US completed its strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

  
  

• 01:37 GMT

  In the wake of US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites and amid fears of retaliation, Israel has imposed sweeping restrictions on civilian life across the country, shifting all regions to “essential activity” status starting at 3:45am local time Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced.

  Approved by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the new Home Front Command instructions prohibit educational activities, public gatherings, and workplace attendance – except for those in essential sectors. The IDF urged citizens to adhere strictly to the updated guidelines, which are now available on the National Emergency Portal and the Home Front Command app.

• 01:30 GMT

  One of the most vocal Republicans who has pushed against American intervention in Iran, US Congressman Thomas Massie, has blasted President Trump’s military action: “This is not Constitutional,” he wrote on X.

• 01:25 GMT

  US Senate Majority Leader John Thune backed Trump’s strikes on Iran, saying they help ensure “a nuclear weapon remains out of reach.” In a post on X, he claimed Iran has “rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace” and is committed to “bringing ‘death to America’ and wiping Israel off the map.”