As the U.S.-Israel military campaign enters its second week, a seventh American service member is killed, more than 1,300 Iranians have been killed, and the president is threatening to widen the war — with no clear plan to end it.
President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to strike “new parts of Iran” and “groups of people” not previously targeted, escalating a war that has already killed thousands, sent oil prices spiraling, and drawn condemnation from governments around the world — including some of America’s closest allies.
The announcement came on day nine of Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign launched February 28.
Trump posted on social media in the early hours of Saturday that Iran “will be hit very hard” and that attacks would continue “until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse.”
By Sunday, Israel had conducted two additional waves of strikes on Tehran, this time targeting energy infrastructure — hitting fuel storage facilities that distribute oil to both civilian consumers and military entities.
The Pentagon announced that a seventh U.S. service member has died from injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on American troops in Saudi Arabia last week.
The six previously identified fallen service members — Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan, 54 — were brought home in flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base on Friday, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance stood to salute.
A War With No Clear Endgame
What began as a declared campaign to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program and missile capabilities has since fractured into a conflict with shifting justifications and no defined finish line.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has insisted the U.S. operation is not a “democracy-building exercise” and “This is not Iraq — this is not endless.”
His efforts were not backed up by Trump then saying he was not bound by the post-Iraq “yips” and would have no qualms about sending U.S. ground troops “if they were necessary.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio credited a completely different rationale for the war, arguing that the U.S. became aware that Israel was planning military action and pre-emptively attacked Iran because of the imminent threat of retaliatory strikes against American forces.
Experts and analysts are alarmed by the contradiction.
Richard Fontaine, chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security and former adviser to Senator John McCain, said the strategy is “all over the place right now,” warning that “if you don’t know what you’re fighting for, then among other things you don’t know when you’ve attained it — and you don’t know when to stop.”
Trump and his top officials distorted and overstated the threat that Tehran posed to the U.S. on several occasions in the lead-up to Iran’s strikes, according to sources and unclassified intelligence assessments.
At his State of the Union address last week, Trump claimed that Iran was “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
That assertion is not backed up by U.S. intelligence.
An unclassified assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2025 said that Iran could develop a “militarily-viable” intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”
The Human Cost: Over 1,300 Dead, Children Among the Victims
The civilian toll inside Iran has been devastating.
At least 1,205 civilians have been killed in Iran since the conflict began last Saturday, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The total includes 194 children.
According to the Red Crescent, a total of 65 schools and 32 medical facilities such as hospitals and pharmaceuticals have been targeted since the war started, and more than 10,000 civilian sites have been damaged.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society separately reported over 6,600 civilian units have been struck.
The devastation is not limited to Tehran.
On the first day of the campaign, a missile struck a primary school in the southeastern city of Minab, killing around 180 schoolgirls and staff, according to Iran’s health ministry, and drawing condemnation from the United Nations.
U.S. and Israeli officials have said they are targeting military sites and are investigating reports of civilian harm.
Lebanon is also bleeding.
Fighting has spread to Lebanon after Hezbollah launched missles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes.
Israeli forces ordered Lebanese residents to evacuate as they unleashed attacks across southern and eastern Lebanon, including around the capital city of Beirut.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the Israeli strikes had killed 390 people as of Saturday.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike hit a hotel in central Beirut, killing at least four people and wounding ten others.
The death toll in Lebanon is 394 as of Sunday.
Iran Pushes Back — and Fractures Within
Iran has not surrendered. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed that unconditional surrender was a “dream” Iran’s enemies should “take to the grave,” even as he apologized to neighboring countries struck by Iranian drones and missiles and pledged to stop attacking Gulf nations.
That pledge quickly fell apart.
Conflicting statements from Iranian officials underscore possible rifts within the leadership following Khamenei’s death.
While Pezeshkian apologized for attacks in neighboring nations, in a later “explanation” his office vowed to continue striking U.S. targets in the region.
Despite President Pezeshkian’s apology to the neighboring states and order to the armed forces to stop the strikes, the Revolutionary Guards continued with the attacks, exposing a leadership rift within the Iranian government.
Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani — who has emerged as one of the most powerful figures since Khamenei’s killing — warned that Trump would “pay the price” for the strikes.
Trump dismissed him in a CBS News interview, saying he had “no idea” who Larijani was and “couldn’t care less.”
International Condemnation Grows
The war has strained relations with some of Washington’s closest partners.
Switzerland’s Defense Minister Martin Pfister said the government believes the attack on Iran constitutes a violation of international law.
Germany’s chancellor warned against an “endless war” that could fracture Iran and trigger a migration crisis in Europe.
Spain denied the use of its military bases for U.S. flights connected to military operations against Iran.
Pope Leo, speaking from St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, called for silence of the bombs and an opening for dialogue, warning of the risk that Lebanon and other neighbors “may once again sink into instability.”
Trump’s decision to go it alone in Iran without a vote or even debate in Congress creates both constitutional problems and political challenges.
The president chose not to offer a full discussion of this choice in his 2026 State of the Union address.
Americans were divided about the merits of attacking Iran, but they were united on the need for obtaining congressional approval before acting.
A Region — and World — Feeling the Shockwave
The economic consequences are already rippling outward. Oil prices have surged to their highest level since September 2023. Global supply chains have been disrupted. Iran forced the Strait of Hormuz to close and has targeted energy facilities, affecting oil and gas shipments worldwide.
Meanwhile, Trump has not ruled out sending American ground troops into Iran — a prospect that, if realized, would mark the largest U.S. military deployment in the Middle East since the Iraq War.
As of Sunday, there is no ceasefire in sight, no peace talks underway, and no clear definition of what American victory would even look like.
What is clear is who is paying the price: the more than 1,300 Iranians dead, the children buried in rubble, the seven U.S. service members whose families now grieve, and the millions of civilians across the region living in fear of what comes next.
Resist Hate covers rights, social justice, climate, democracy, and government accountability. Learn more about us on What is Resist Hate?
