Trump says US 'continues to totally demolish' Iranian forces as video shows American firepower

India is allowing an Iranian naval ship to dock in Kochi after the vessel was "having problems" over the weekend, India's foreign minister confirmed Saturday.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the IRIS Lavan is now docked in southern Kochi city, adding that allowing the Iranian warship to seek refuge there "was the humane thing to do."

This comes after the U.S. sank the IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday and, in a separate incident, Sri Lanka brought more than 200 sailors on the IRIS Bushehr ashore after the vessel requested assistance.

Jaishankar said both ships had participated in naval exercises with India and were "caught on the wrong side of events" once the war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel began.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee marked one week of war with Iran on Saturday, saying the embassy is working around the clock to evacuate Americans.

Huckabee said in a lengthy post on X that the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is operating on a 24-hour schedule to help Americans return home.

“We have now successfully evacuated thousands of people using every means possible,” he said.

Huckabee strongly pushed back on media reports claiming “nothing was being done” to help Americans.

“Total lie,” he said. “In the early hours and first days of war, the safest decision and what we urged our own embassy personnel to do was stay close to shelter.”

The ambassador praised President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran, saying military action was necessary to stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“Had the fanatical religious zealots obtained a nuclear warhead … they would have used it on America,” he said.

Huckabee also addressed rumors that he had left Israel.

“The ambassador is the last one to leave. It’s how it works,” he said. “First duty is to American citizens. They are our real bosses.”

This post is an excerpt from an opinion article by Dr. Rebecca Grant. Grant is vice president of the Lexington Institute.

"Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to," Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at U.S. Central Command headquarters on Thursday.

From a tactical perspective, the scale of the airstrikes unleashed in Operation Epic Fury indicates that the U.S. almost waited too long. Starting the campaign to take out Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones required strikes on almost 2,000 aimpoints in just the first few days. That’s one munition per aimpoint, and there could be thousands more to go.

It was now or never. Iran planned to stockpile missiles and drones and build a handful of nuclear weapons that no military force could reach. "Iranian negotiators said to us directly, with no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs," U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday.

The terrifying scale of Iran’s target set went unnoticed by most of the world until last Saturday.

Imagine how difficult this job would have been in a few years — especially with Russia and China helping Iran restock.

"This operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year or a year and a half, would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones that no one could do anything about it because they could hold the whole world hostage," Rubio said on Capitol Hill on Monday. "Look at the damage they’re doing now. And this is a weakened Iran … imagine a year from now," he added.

With Iran’s command and control degraded and air defenses flattened, the southern air ingress approaches to the country are wide open. "And now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS--and laser-guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile," Hegseth said at the Pentagon on Wednesday.

Here come the big bombs to take on hundreds of targets. Those targets include factories, weapons storage sites and every IRGC facility U.S. forces can find. And it’s all happening while a 2,000-mile arc of aerial defense continues.

Israel said Saturday that its air force struck “key Iranian regime military infrastructure” in Iran.

According to the Israeli Defense Forces, more than 80 jets struck targets in Tehran and central Iran.

“These strikes degrade the Iranian regime’s ability to fire at Israeli civilians,” the IDF said.

The IDF said it struck Imam Hossein Military University, which it described as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps training and assembly compound.

The military also said it targeted ballistic missile storage facilities, underground missile command infrastructure and launch sites aimed at Israel.

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. is "doing very well" in Iran, nearly a week after the military coordinated with Israel on airstrikes in Tehran that left its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dead.

"Somebody said, ‘How would you score it from zero to 10?’ I said, ‘I'd give it a 12 to a 15.’ Their army is gone. Their navy is gone. Their communications are gone. Their leaders are gone," Trump said. "Two sets of their leaders."

The president made the remarks after Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked at the end of a White House college sports roundtable what was motivating Trump to hold the roundtable "because there is a lot of other stuff going on in the world."

"That’s right," Trump agreed, adding that Iran’s air force has been "wiped out entirely. Think of it. They have 32 ships. All 32 are at the bottom of the ocean. Other than that, they're doing very well."

"Our military is doing phenomenally," he said. "The situation with a very bad and very sick group of leaders who were killing a lot of people. A lot of our people were being killed or were being maimed. … And we had a choice. We could take it and go on like that for years or do something about it. And we did something about it."

Trump added that "people are very impressed with our military, and they admire our military with what happened in Venezuela, what's happening now, what's happened with the B-2 bombers before this, where they took out the nuclear capability or potential of Iran.

"I think we're, right now, we're a country that's more respected than we've ever been respected before."

This post is an excerpt from an article by Brie Stimson

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that it intercepted two ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base.

The ministry also said it intercepted and destroyed four drones heading toward the Shaybah field and had intercepted additional drones in that direction earlier in the day.

Another drone was intercepted east of the capital, Riyadh.

Chaos erupted in Washington Square Park in Manhattan as a vigil mourning the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei descended into violence Friday.

Video from the event showed a man attempting to pull down a poster of the dictator, who was killed last week in an Israeli airstrike, when a man wearing a SpongeBob sweatshirt punched him in the face, sending him to the ground.

Others began fighting, prompting New York City Police Department (NYPD) intervention.

As the brawl unfolded, the crowd could be heard shouting profanity.

Multiple people were captured on video being detained by police.

The vigil featured a makeshift memorial table covered with Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, candles and photos of Khamenei, with an observer describing the scene as the "People’s Republic of New York."

This post is an excerpt from an article by Alexandra Koch

American forces have struck more than 3,000 targets and have delivered major blows to Iran's navy since attacks against the Islamic Republic began last week, officials said Friday.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said U.S. forces have damaged or destroyed 43 naval ship.

Targets included anti-ship missile sites, Iranian military communication capabilities, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a major branch of Iran's armed forces, joint headquarters and other sites.

In addition, U.S. forces have used B-2 stealth bombers, drones, fighter jets and dozens of other assets and “and special capabilities we can’t list here!” CENTCOM said. 

The State Department approved a possible $151.8 million Foreign Military Sale to Israel for 12,000 BLU-110A/B 1,000-pound bomb bodies, according to a congressional notification released Friday.

The sale was authorized under an emergency determination by the Secretary of State, waiving the usual congressional review requirements under the Arms Export Control Act.

Officials said the transfer will help Israel meet “current and future threats,” strengthen homeland defense and deter regional adversaries.

The approval comes as President Donald Trump met Friday with major U.S. defense contractors at the White House to discuss expanding weapons production as the conflict with Iran continues.

Trump said after the meeting that defense industry leaders agreed to quadruple production of “Exquisite Class” weaponry used in current military operations.

Lockheed Martin later confirmed on X that it had agreed to quadruple critical munitions production, saying the effort began months ago with the Trump administration and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he will travel to Dover Air Force Base to honor the U.S. service members killed during Operation Epic Fury.

“I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The dignified transfer will be held for the six American service members killed March 1 in a drone attack in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, while supporting Operation Epic Fury.

“GOD BLESS THEM ALL!” Trump added.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell pushed back Friday on claims that Operation Epic Fury has destabilized the Middle East, arguing instead that the campaign has strengthened unity among U.S. partners in the region.

“Operation Epic Fury has not plunged the region into chaos, as some in the Fake News have reported,” Parnell wrote on X. “In fact, it has forged unprecedented unity among our key Gulf partners.”

Parnell added that the conflict has instead exposed Iran as “a reckless aggressor."

“Far from destabilizing the Arabian Peninsula, this decisive action has exposed Iran’s true nature as a reckless aggressor, willing to target sovereign nations in a desperate bid for retaliation,” he wrote.

Azerbaijan officials said Iranian agents and and their accomplices planned to blowup a pipeline and launch attacks at the Israeli Embassy in Baku.

The country's state security service said the suspects wanted to destroy the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries the country’s crude to global markets, and also planned to attacked a synagogue and a Jewish leader, The Associated Press reported.

Four Azerbaijani citizens were charged with involvement in the plot and given 6.5-year prison sentences and three others were arrested.

The suspects brought explosives into the country and hid them in secret caches, the report states.

The planned attacks were thwarted.

On Friday, Iran launched drones at Azerbaijan, which wounded four civilians and damaged an airport building.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards challenged President Donald Trump to deploy U.S. naval vessels to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported on Friday.

Iran has said the strait is closed to U.S. and Israeli-linked ships.

"Iran strongly welcomes the escort of oil tankers and that U.S. forces will be there for the crossing of the Strait of Hormuz," Guards spokesperson Alimohammad Naini said, Reuters reported. "And we are, by the way, awaiting their presence."

On Tuesday, Trump said the Navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway, if necessary.

"We recommend that, before making any decision, the Americans remember the fire on the American supertanker Bridgeton in 1987 and the oil tankers that were recently targeted," Naini said.

In 1987, the supertanker SS Bridgeton struck an Iranian mine while traveling as part of a convoy in the Persian Gulf and under escort by U.S. warships.

As of Friday, U.S. forces have damaged or destroyed 43 Iranian ships, according to U.S. Central Command.

A Pakistani man convicted on Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other politicians told an FBI agent he thought Iran "was responsible" for the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Asif Merchant, 47, told the FBI agent, Jacqueline Smith, that the incident "was the same thing he was sent here to do," Smith testified during Merchant's trial.

Merchant told jurors the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him on a "mission" to kill U.S. politicians, including by telling him to attend a Republican rally. Merchant was arrested July 12, 2024, one day prior to the shooting in Butler, where Thomas Crooks fired several shots into a rally crowd, killing one and grazing Trump’s ear. 

The FBI has said repeatedly that it found no evidence that Crooks had co-conspirators or that any foreign actors were involved in the incident.

Merchant, who was convicted by a jury of murder-for-hire and attempt to commit terrorism, testified that Trump was not his only target, telling jurors then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley were also on his list. He claimed that he only took part in the plot because Iran's IRGC warned it would target his family.

"I had no other options," Merchant said. "My family was threatened."

This post is an excerpt of an article by Ashley Oliver.

Israel launched a wave of strikes toward Iran on Friday morning, it said.

The Israel air force said it began an "extensive wave" of strikes targeting unspecified infrastructure in Tehran.

Hours earlier, Israeli forces targeted Hezbollah terrorists in neighboring Lebanon in a series of attacks.

U.S. forces have used modern anti-drone systems to take down Iranian drones as part of a multi-layered defense.

The War Department no longer relies on million-dollar missiles to take down the drones, instead shooting down drones costing hundreds of thousands of dollars with $10,000 weaponry, according to U.S. Central Command Cmdr. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper.

Cooper said U.S. captured an original Iranian drone design and sent the part to the U.S. where they "pulled the guts out."

We "put a little 'Made in America' on it, brought it back here and we're shooting it back at the Iranians," he said.

In addition, U.S. naval ships are equipped with a laser that blind drone sensors, causing them to crash. Fox News has been told that the lasers have not been used during the conflict against Iran.

More than 27,000 U.S. citizens have returned to the United States from the Middle East since the launch of a U.S.-Israeli joint military campaign against Iran, the State Department said Friday.

The figures comprised the number of Americans that have returned to the U.S. since Feb. 28, said Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for Global Public Affairs.

The U.S. has made effort to move American citizens out of the region amid retaliatory attacks by Iran on multiple Middles Eastern countries, including tourists hubs in Dubai. .