After the U.S. and Israel launched their massive air war against Iran last weekend, their initial attacks targeted military installations and the Iranian leadership, doing massive damage to the former and killing many of the latter, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran has retaliated with its own airstrikes, targeting U.S. military bases across the Gulf—including in Kuwait, where six U.S. troops were killed—and cities in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Since then, the war has expanded rapidly. Iran has now broadened its targeting to include a British air base in Cyprus, oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf, and most recently an airport in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, a U.S. Navy submarine sunk an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean—which Tehran claimed was unarmed—as it returned from an Indian multilateral naval exercise, leaving more than 100 sailors missing or dead.
In a recorded video announcing the start of the war, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the goal of the campaign was regime change, claiming that the current government of Iran was simply unwilling to ever give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons. This was a clearer statement of purpose than the litany of rationales Trump offered during his recent state of the union address.