U.S., Israel strike Iran, killing Khamenei and widening regional conflict

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and turned a campaign marketed as limited into a regional war with an expanding human and fiscal toll. Explosions were reported in Tehran, northern Israel and across Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, while schools, workplaces and airspace in Israel were shut as the fighting spread.

Israel said it launched a pre-emptive attack that had been planned for months with Washington, with the launch date set weeks earlier. The assault came after renewed U.S.-Iran negotiations in February over Iran’s nuclear program, and Israel insisted any agreement also address Iran’s missile capabilities. Iran said it was prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief, but rejected tying those talks to missiles.

Khamenei was moved to a secure location before Iranian state media later confirmed his death. Iranian officials said the attacks hit military and defense sites as well as civilian infrastructure, and Fars News Agency said missiles struck University Street and the Jomhouri area in Tehran. In southern Iran, a strike hit an elementary school in Minab, in Hormozgan province, killing at least 40 people. Preliminary figures cited across the region put the dead at 3,468 in Iran, 3,371 in Lebanon and 28 in Gulf states, a toll that already reaches beyond any narrow battlefield definition.

The financial burden rose almost as quickly. CSIS estimated the war cost $11.3 billion by day 6 and $16.5 billion by day 12, while Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg told lawmakers the Pentagon needed $80 billion to cover Iran-war costs and other bills. CSIS warned that heavy use of high-demand munitions could strain stockpiles and divert weapons from other theaters, including Ukraine and the western Pacific.

The June American strikes on Iranian nuclear installations marked the most direct U.S. military action ever against the Islamic Republic, underscoring how far the conflict had moved from the language of containment. The scale now invites the same comparison that shadowed earlier U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: limited aims gave way to open-ended commitments, and the public was left to absorb the casualties, the displacement and the bill. The central question is no longer whether the operation expanded, but what strategic objective can justify its mounting cost.