Operation Epic Fury Those 3 words change the world.
Welcome to Epic Fury, the US Iran War podcast.
On Saturday, February 28th, 2026, the United States and
Israel launched one of the largest coordinated military
strikes in recent history, targeting the Islamic Republic
of Iran. This is episode 1.
We are going to break down everything.
What happened, where was hit, why now, what Iran did in
response and what came next. This is the most important story
on the planet right now and we are just getting started.
Let's begin at the very beginning.
What actually happened. On February 28th, 2026, at 2:30
in the morning Eastern Time, President Donald Trump released
an 8 minute video on Truth Social.
In it, he confirmed that the United States military had begun
what he called major combat operations in Iran.
His exact words were these the United States military began
major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the
American people by eliminating imminent threats from the
Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
He laid out his full case, 47 years of what he described as an
unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, going all the
way back to the 1979 hostage crisis.
He said, and this is a direct quote, for 47 years, the Iranian
regime has chanted death to America and wage an unending
campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United
States, our troops and the innocent people.
In many, many countries, he added.
It has been mass terror and we are not going to put up with it
any longer. He said Iran had rejected every
opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions and that the
time for warnings was over. Shortly after that video went
live, the Pentagon confirmed the name of the operation in a
social media post. 3 words and an American flag operation Epic
Fury. Now, this was not a solo
American mission, not even close.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu simultaneously
announced Israel's own parallel offensive, which he named the
Roar of the Lion. Netanyahu said, and I am
paraphrasing here, that this murderous terrorist regime must
not be armed with nuclear weapons that would allow it to
threaten all of humanity. He added that the joint action
would create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take
their fate into their own hands. This was a fully coordinated
joint United States and Israeli military campaign.
Months in the planning, executed simultaneously.
Now let's talk about what made this operation different from
what came before. Back in June of 2025, just eight
months earlier, the United States and Israel had struck
Iranian nuclear installations in a limited operation that was
over within hours. A single targeted campaign.
This time was different, significantly different.
Axios and CNN both reported that United States military planners
have been preparing for weeks long, sustained operations.
Not hours, not days, weeks. Officials describe this as a
broad campaign, not a limited strike.
In early February, the United States had already deployed a
second aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, to the Middle
East alongside the USS Harry S Truman, which was already
stationed there. 2 carrier groups.
That level of naval presence signal serious sustain intent,
and the timing of the strikes added another layer of
deliberate messaging. These attacks began in broad
daylight early on a Saturday morning in Iran.
It was also the holy month of Ramadan, a time when Iran's
majority Muslim population is fasting during daylight hours.
Millions of Iranians were heading to work and school when
the explosions began. This was designed to be seen by
Iran, by the region, by the world.
So what exactly were the targets?
Trump was direct. He said the campaign aimed to
destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the
ground, he added. We are going to annihilate their
Navy. The objective was 3 pronged.
Destroy Iran's missile capabilities.
Prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and, according
to Trump's own words, ultimately topple the regime itself. the
United States official told Fox News that the American side was
focusing specifically on military targets and ballistic
missile sites that posed an imminent threat to the region.
Israel, meanwhile, was separately targeting Iranian
leadership. Trump also made a direct appeal
to members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the
IRGC. He called on them to lay down
their arms in exchange for immunity.
He warned that refusal would mean, in his words, certain
death. So let's talk geography.
Where exactly was struck on February 28th?
The scale was staggering. Explosions were reported across
Iran simultaneously. In Tehran, the capital, in the
heart of the country, in Isfan in Calm, the religious center of
Iran, in Karich, in Kirmansh, in To Breeze, in the northwest, in
Islam, and in Morstan Province. This was not a surgical strike
on a single facility in the desert.
This was a nationwide coordinated assault on multiple
targets across the entire country at once.
In Tehran specifically, the strikes hit close to the
headquarters of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
At least one strike was reported near the personal offices of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.
And Speaking of Khamenei, where was he when this happened?
A source directly involved in the Israeli side of the
operation told CBS News that both Khamenei and Iranian
President Mehsud Posseshkian were among the primary targets
of the first wave of strikes. However, Iranian state media and
multiple regional sources reported that both men survived.
Reuters, citing Israeli military and regional sources, confirmed
that Common A was not in Tehran at the time of the strikes and
had been relocated to a secure, undisclosed compound.
However, the same sources told Reuters that two very senior
Iranian figures were likely killed.
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nazerzada and Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Mohammed Pakpur were
both reported by Reuters to have likely been killed by Israeli
airstrikes. These are extraordinary losses
at the very top of Iran's military command structure.
Now let's talk about the human cost.
This is where the story becomes deeply painful.
News Nation reported that the United States and Israeli
strikes killed at least 40 people at a girls school in
southern Iran, according to Iran's state-run news agency
IRNA. At least 45 others were wounded
in that single incident. The targeting of a school,
whether deliberate or a consequence of proximity to a
military site, immediately became one of the most contested
and emotionally charged elements of the entire operation.
Beyond that specific incident, the full civilian casualty
figures from across Iran we're still emerging in the immediate
hours after the strikes began. What was clear was that this was
not a conflict confined to military installations in the
middle of nowhere. Cities were being struck.
Populated areas were experiencing the direct impact
of the campaign. One more detail that tells you
the scale of disruption. According to the Net Blocks
organization, Internet access was shut down across Iran
entirely. Mobile phone services were also
cut. The regime severed its own
population from the outside world in an attempt to control
the information environment. People inside Iran in those
first hours had almost no way of knowing the full picture of what
was happening in their own country, and the impact extended
well beyond Iran's borders. Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and
the United Arab Emirates all closed their airspace.
Israel and Syria closed their airspace as well.
Airlines including Air India, Indigo, Biman, Bangladesh
Airlines, Lufthansa, Was Air and Virgin Atlantic all suspended
Middle East flights, according to Flight Radar 24.
The skies over the region were largely empty of civilian
aircraft. In the hours following the
strikes, the United States Department of State issued
shelter in place advisories for American citizens in Bahrain,
Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
We are going to pause here when we come back.
Iran fires back. The political earthquake in
Washington. The reaction from around the
world and the critical question of what all of this actually
means. Welcome back.
Let's talk about Iran's response because Tehran did not hesitate.
Iran launched what multiple outlets described as an
unprecedented wave of retaliatory strikes across the
Middle East. Dozens of ballistic missiles
were fired, targeting Israel and United States military bases
across the region. Countries targeted by Iranian
missiles included Israel, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Bahrain,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
CNN reported that blasts were heard from the beaches of Dubai
to the streets of Doha. It was not immediately clear in
those first hours whether those explosions were the sound of
missiles being intercepted by air defense systems or missiles
hitting their targets. The Israeli Defense Forces
confirmed that a significant volley of Iranian missiles was
launched toward Israel. Israeli air defense systems
intercepted and destroyed several of those missiles over
the skies of Jerusalem. Emergency alert sirens sounded
across Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Israel
Katz declared a special and immediate state of emergency
across the entire country. Israelis were instructed to stay
close to shelter. Schools and workplaces were
closed. Rolling Marks, a journalist
based in Modi in Israel, described the situation on the
ground. She said.
We are now on emergency war footing in and out of shelter.
All morning, CNN analysts pointed out something
significant about Iran's decision to retaliate so quickly
and so broadly. When the United States and
Israel struck Iran back in June of 2025, those strikes
specifically targeted Iran's stockpile of ballistic missiles,
significantly hampering its ability to fire back.
Analysts suggested that Iran may have made the calculation to use
whatever missile capability it still had as quickly as possible
before further strikes could degrade it further.
Use it or lose it. Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a
formal statement calling the strikes a direct violation of
the United Nations Charter. They vowed what they call the
decisive and definitive response.
They said they're armed forces would not hesitate to defend the
country. And they warned that the
aggressors would regret their criminal act.
The statement also invoked Iranian history, saying that
Iranians have never bowed their heads in submission to foreign
aggression. And at this time, the response
of the Iranian nation would be decisive and definitive.
The Houthis in Yemen also announced that they would resume
attacks in the Red Sea in solidarity with Iran, raising
the prospect of renewed disruption to one of the world's
most critical shipping lanes. Now let's talk about Washington,
because the political fallout from this decision was immediate
and significant. On the Republican side, many of
the loudest voices lined up firmly behind the president.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer called it a bold, decisive act
of strength, pointing to decades of Iranian sponsored terrorism
and the deaths of hundreds of United States service members.
But here is where it became complicated.
Not everyone on the right agreed.
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie was one of the most vocal
critics within Trump's own party.
He called this an act of war that had not been authorized by
Congress. He raised the War Powers Act
directly. The War Powers Act, passed in
1973 in the aftermath of Vietnam, requires the president
to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing United
States forces to military action and limits the duration of such
action without congressional approval to 60 days.
Massey argued that Trump had no legal authority to launch this
operation without a congressional vote.
He was not alone. Many Democrats raised the same
constitutional question. Did the president of the United
States have the authority to start a war with Iran without
Congress? Trump himself addressed
reporters briefly and said all I want is freedom for the people.
I want a safe nation and that is what we are going to have.
He framed the entire operation as being ultimately about
liberating the Iranian people from their own government, not
about conflict with Iran as a nation.
Now let's look at how the rest of the world reacted. the United
Kingdom government released a statement saying it did not want
to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.
The British government said it had bolstered its defensive
capabilities in the region and was offering consular support to
British citizens. Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese weighed in, signaling that he viewed the
United States strikes as a response to Iranian aggression,
though Australia was careful not to directly endorse the
operation. Qatar found itself in an
extraordinarily difficult position.
Qatar hosts Al Udiyid Air Base, the largest United States
military installation in the Middle East.
But Qatar was also struck by Iranian retaliatory missiles.
Qatar's foreign ministry said it reserved its full right to
defend itself. Qatar's Defense ministry
confirmed it had successfully intercepted a number of attacks
targeting its territory. The ministry said that targeting
Qatari territory contradicted the principles of good
neighborliness and could not be accepted under any pretext or
justification. Authorities reported no
immediate injuries or damage in residential areas.
And then there was one of the most striking voices to emerge
on that day. Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza
Palavi, the son of the Shah who was overthrown in 1979, released
a public video statement. He addressed Iran's military
directly. He urged officers and soldiers
to stand down, to refuse orders and to join the Iranian people.
He spoke about bringing about what he called a stable and
secure transition away from the Islamic Republic.
He also appealed directly to Trump to exercise the utmost
caution to protect civilian lives.
The fact that Iran's royal family in exile was speaking
publicly on this day, calling openly for regime change, was
itself a moment of enormous historical significance.
Now let's zoom out fully. Why did this happen on February
28th, 2026? What was the road that led here?
The context is essential. Beginning in late December of
2025, massive nationwide anti government protests had erupted
across Iran. Driven largely by catastrophic
economic crisis, the collapse of the Iranian rial, and spiraling
prices, the protests spread to over 100 cities across the
country. They were the largest protests
in Iran since the 1979 revolution itself.
Many protesters were calling openly for regime change.
The Iranian government responded with violent crackdown. the
United States based human rights activist news agency estimated
the death toll from the crackdown at 7000 people.
The Iranian government's own figure was 3117.
Trump and other American officials cited a figure of
32,000. Regardless of the exact number,
the scale of the regime's violence against its own people
was undeniable and became a central part of Trump's public
justification for the operation. Throughout February 2026, the
United States and Iran have been engaged in nuclear negotiations.
The talks were described by some as showing progress.
Just the day before the strikes, on Friday, February 27th, Oman's
foreign minister said a breakthrough had been reached.
He claimed Iran had agreed never to stockpile enriched uranium
and to accept full verification by the International Atomic
Energy Agency. He said peace was within reach.
Then, within hours, the bombs fell.
The key sticking point that ultimately made a deal
impossible was Israel's demand. Israel insisted that any
agreement must include the complete and irreversible
dismantling of Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure.
Not a pause, not limits. Total dismantlement.
Iran refused absolutely, and without Israeli agreement, the
United States would not sign any deal.
The 10 day deadline that Trump had publicly issued to Iran
expired on February 28th. This operation had been planned
for weeks. Officials had told Reuters as
far back as mid February that the United States was preparing
for weeks long sustained operations, not a limited
strike. The deadline was not a bluff, it
was a countdown. So what does all of this mean?
What happens from here? First, this was not going to be
over quickly. With two aircraft carrier groups
in the region and weeks of operations reportedly planned,
the United States was clearly committed to a sustained
campaign. Second, Iran's retaliation was
immediate, broad, and potentially just the beginning.
Dozens of ballistic missiles had already been fired across the
region. The Houthis had pledged to re
enter the fight. Iranian proxy forces in Iraq,
Lebanon and Syria were all potential vectors for further
escalation. Third, the humanitarian
situation inside Iran was already deeply alarming.
A girls school had been struck with significant casualties on
day one. Cities across the country had
experienced explosions. The Internet and mobile networks
have been cut off. Millions of civilians were
living through the opening hours of a war with no reliable
information about what was happening around them. 4th.
The political and legal battle in Washington was only
beginning. The War Powers Act debate was
going to be one of the defining domestic stories of the weeks
ahead. Congressional hearings were
coming, legal challenges were likely, and the question of
presidential war making authority was going to be fought
out in public. And 5th, nobody knew how far
this would go. The nightmare scenario was a
broader regional war. Hezbollah in Lebanon, the
Houthis in Yemen, Iranian proxies in Iraq.
The potential for other regional or global powers to be drawn in
the world in those first hours was watching with a level of
anxiety not seen in a generation.
That is episode 1 of Epic Fury, the US Iran war podcast.
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