2026 Iran war

The 2026 Iran war began on 28 February 2026, when the United States and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on multiple sites and cities across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and numerous other Iranian officials. Iran responded with missile and drone strikes against Israel, US bases, and US-allied countries in the region.

After the Middle Eastern crisis began in 2023, Iran and Israel exchanged missile strikes in 2024, and Israel and the US launched airstrikes against Iran in the Twelve-Day War in June 2025. In January 2026, Iranian security forces killed thousands of protesters during the largest protests since the Islamic Revolution. US president Donald Trump threatened to take military action against the Iran for the killings. The US undertook its largest military buildup in the Middle East since the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, while Iran and the US held indirect nuclear negotiations in February.

The surprise US-Israeli attack killed Khamenei and various other other Iranian officials, and some civilians in the midst of negotiations. Subsequent attacks damaged military bases, government facilities, schools, hospitals, and cultural heritage sites. In retaliation, Iran launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at targets in Israel and at US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Iran allegedly targeted civilian infrastructure in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Oman. A drone struck Britain's Akrotiri military base on Cyprus. Conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalated into the 2026 Lebanon war.

Trump administration officials have offered various and conflicting explanations for the war, such as to ward off an imminent Iranian threat, to pre-empt Iranian retaliation against US assets after an expected Israeli attack on Iran, to destroy Iran's missile and military capabilities, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, to secure Iran's natural resources, and to achieve regime change by bringing the Iranian opposition to power. Iran, as well as officials from the Pentagon, rejected claims that Iran had been preparing an attack. The IAEA said that it did not have the access it needed to ensure that the Iranian nuclear program was exclusively peaceful, but that there was no evidence of a structured nuclear weapons program at the time of the strikes. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and several uninvolved countries condemned the US–Israeli strikes; the United Nations Security Council later passed a resolution condemning Iran's retaliatory strikes on the Gulf states. Critics of the war, including legal and international relations experts, have described the attacks as illegal under US law, an act of imperialism and a violation of Iran's sovereignty under international law. Some members of the Iranian diaspora and opposition have rallied in favour of US-Israeli action and expressed hope the war would lead to the liberation of the Iranian people.

The conflict led to immediate surges in oil and gas prices, widespread disruptions in aviation and tourism, and heightened volatility in financial markets. Iran forced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz which was seen by some as a violation of the law of the sea and attacked energy facilities, disrupting global oil and gas shipments.