No US Casualties, 'Minimal' Damage From Iran Retaliation - Pentagon

WASHINGTON, OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The US attack Saturday on Iran and that country's retaliation have caused no reported American casualties, the Pentagon said, adding that damage to US installations has been "minimal" despite a barrage of Iranian air assaults.

Following the initial US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic, "CENTCOM forces successfully defended against hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks," the US Central Command, which launched the American operation at the orders of President Donald Trump, said in a statement.

"There have been no reports of US casualties or combat-related injuries. Damage to US installations was minimal and has not impacted operations."

The Israeli army said around 200 fighter jets took part in an "extensive attack" on military targets in Iran on Saturday, saying the air raids were the largest in the air force's history.

"Since this morning, approximately 200 fighter jets... completed an extensive attack against the missile array and the defence systems of the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran. This is the largest military air raid in the history of the Israeli Air Force," a military statement said.

"Fighter jets dropped hundreds of munitions targeting approximately 500 objectives, including aerial defence systems and missile launchers," it added.

Iran's foreign minister said the country's supreme leader was alive, along with all high-ranking officials, after Israel and the United States launched strikes across the country on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was alive "as far as I know", in an interview from Tehran with the US outlet, adding that "all high ranking officials are alive".

Araghchi said he had been in contact with Gulf states and "explained for them that we have no intention to attack them but we are actually attacking the American bases in the act of self defence".

He added that while there was no communication with Washington now, "if Americans wants to talk to us. They know how they can contact me. We are certainly interested for de-escalation".

A strike that hit a school in southern Iran killed 51 students, state television reported Saturday, citing a local official who gave an updated toll.

"In this morning's Israeli missile attack on a girls' elementary school in the (Minab) county, 51 students have so far been killed and 60 students have been wounded," the county governor said.

The United Nations' rights chief deplored Saturday's strikes in the Middle East and urged all parties to return to negotiations, saying attacks would only result in "death, destruction and human misery".

"I deplore the military strikes across Iran this morning by Israel and the United States of America, and the subsequent retaliatory strikes by Iran," Volker Turk said in a statement.

"As always, in any armed conflict, it is civilians who end up paying the ultimate price.

"Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction and human misery.

"To avert these terrible consequences for civilians, I call for restraint and implore all parties to see reason, to de-escalate, and for a return to the negotiating table where they had been actively seeking a solution only hours earlier," he said.

"Failing to do so risks an even wider conflict, that will inevitably lead to further senseless civilian deaths and destruction on a potentially unimaginable scale, not just in Iran but across the Middle East region."

The United States and Israel launched a wave of strikes against targets in Iranian cities on Saturday triggering explosions and columns of smoke in the capital Tehran.

The attacks came after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration at Iran's stance in negotiations over its nuclear and missile programmes.

Trump said Washington's goal was "eliminating imminent threats" from Iran, and Israel's defence minister Israel Katz described the action as a "preventive strike".

"The United States' military began major combat operations in Iran," Trump said in a video message posted on his social media site while he spent the weekend at his Florida golf club.

"We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy," Trump said.

He offered the Iranian military "immunity" or "certain death" and told Iranians the "hour of your freedom is at hand".

Trump had ordered the biggest military build-up in decades in the Middle East, with the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, approaching the coast of Israel

A day after the United States and Iran held talks in Geneva, Trump said on Friday that the cleric-run state was "not willing to give us what we have to have".

But Oman, which mediated the Geneva talks, offered a much rosier picture and said that Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling of any uranium, rendering moot the question of the level of enrichment.

Iran also agreed to degrade current stockpiles into fuel, said Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who was in Washington meeting US Vice President JD Vance.

Iran agreed to restrictions to low-level enrichment in a 2015 deal that Trump ripped up during his first term in office.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel for talks on Iran on Monday, the State Department said.

'Very big problem'

Trump in his State of the Union address Tuesday alleged Iran was developing missiles that could strike the United States.

Rubio later said it would be a "very big problem" for Iran if it does not discuss its missiles. Iran has insisted that the ongoing talks focus on the nuclear issue.

Increasing pressure, Rubio on Friday designated Iran a state sponsor of wrongful detentions, a new blacklist, over jailings of US citizens.

Araghchi said Friday that "success in this path requires seriousness and realism from the other side and avoidance of any miscalculation and excessive demands".

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it would hold technical discussions with Iran on Monday.

The agency called on Iran to cooperate with it "constructively," according to a confidential report seen by AFP.

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