PALM BEACH, Florida, Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated U.S.-Israeli airstrikes that he said killed Iran's leader, but warned attacks would continue.
The strikes, which Trump said were aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and annihilating its navy, follow repeated U.S.-Israeli warnings that they would strike Iran again if it pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Trump, who is monitoring the operation from his Mar-a-Lago oceanfront resort in Florida, posted on Saturday afternoon that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had died in the strikes.
Iran has not confirmed Khamenei's death, and Iranian news agencies Tasnim and Mehr reported he was "steadfast and firm in commanding the field." But a senior Israeli official earlier told Reuters that Khamenei's body had been found, and Trump concurred in a post on Truth Social.
"This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS," Trump wrote.
Trump had warned earlier on Saturday there could be American casualties from "major combat operations" in Iran. But almost 12 hours after the first strikes, U.S. Central Command said it had "no reports of U.S. casualties or combat-related injuries. Damage to U.S. installations was minimal and has not impacted operations."
The strikes are expected to happen over several days, a U.S. official told Reuters. Trump said on social media that heavy bombing "will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary" to achieve "PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!"
U.S. OFFICIALS ACCUSE IRAN NEGOTIATORS OF PLAYING GAMES
This is the second series of U.S. strikes on Iran since Trump returned to the White House last year. The first was in June when Washington struck Iranian nuclear sites.
Despite talks in recent weeks between Iran and the United States, including a meeting on Thursday, senior Trump administration officials told reporters on Saturday the president saw both immediate and long-term reasons to green-light the latest strikes.
One senior U.S. official said the Iranians were not willing to give up their nuclear program, and that "it was very clear that the intent for them was to preserve their ability to do enrichment, so that over time, they could use it for nuclear bombs."
This official said the Iranians used "games, tricks, stall tactics" to string out talks.
Another senior U.S. official said Iran's missile program posed a more immediate threat, and the U.S. had "indicators" Iran intended to use this capability against American forces "potentially, preemptively," or "simultaneous" to military operations against the Iranians.
"We had analysis that basically told us, if we sat back and waited to get hit first, the amount of casualties and damage would be substantially higher than if we acted in a preemptive defensive way," the senior administration official said without sharing specific details.
In his original Saturday announcement video, Trump encouraged regime change, telling the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's elite armed forces, to lay down their weapons, promising they would be granted immunity.
The other option, according to Trump, is "certain death."
The Iranian people should "take over" governance of their country, Trump said in the video.
"It will be yours to take," he said. "This will be probably your only chance for generations."
SOME LAWMAKERS LOOK FOR MORE ANSWERS
Photos released by the White House from Mar-a-Lago show Trump wearing a white "USA" hat as he worked with his national security team near a large map of the Middle East dotted with American and Iranian flags.
Mar-a-Lago's gold-leaf decor is nowhere to be seen in the handout photos, as the president, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles work in a space surrounded by long black curtains hanging from wood rafters.
Other cabinet officials joined from Washington, with one handout photo showing Vice President JD Vance in the White House's Situation Room.
The Trump administration said Rubio spoke this week with top congressional leaders in both parties leading up to the strike.
"Everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame," said Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the administration must seek congressional authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war.
Rubio told the leaders during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday that the operation would likely move forward even as diplomatic efforts continued, two sources familiar with the matter said. The secretary of state on Friday informed the top lawmakers that the operation to attack Iran was likely to commence in the following hours, but said Trump could change his mind, the sources said.
Some European nations are urging a return to negotiations, but most of Trump's fellow Republicans in Congress — and a few Democrats such as Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — cheered Saturday's strikes.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and frequent advocate for an aggressive U.S. foreign policy, criticized European calls for further talks.
"To our European allies: you have gone pathetically soft and lost your zeal for confronting evil apparently unless it’s on your front porch," Graham said in a social media post.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson in Palm Beach, Jasper Ward, Steve Holland, Patricia Zengerle, and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Additional reporting by Erin Banco, Phil Stewart and David Morgan; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Tom Hogue, Sharon Singleton, Peter Graff, Sergio Non, Rod Nickel)
