The February 28 strikes were not the beginning of the story. In June 2025, Israel and the United States had fought a shorter war against Iran that practically destroyed its air defense networks, significantly damaged its military-industrial complex, and struck nuclear infrastructure at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. That campaign was declared a victory and ended without prolonged operations, on the assumption that the damage inflicted might be sufficient to destabilize the regime. When massive protests erupted across Iran in early 2026, driven by economic collapse and political repression, it appeared the strategy might work. But the regime cracked down with full force, killing between 3,000 and 30,000 people by various estimates. While the crackdown was still underway, President Trump promised the Iranian people: "Help is on the way." Carrier Strike Group 3, led by USS Abraham Lincoln, began moving to the Middle East.

On February 28, 2026, the United States launched Operation Epic Fury and Israel launched Operation Roaring Lion. Roughly 900 strikes were executed within a 12-hour window, a tempo that exceeded the opening salvos of Desert Storm and left Iran's already-degraded air defenses overwhelmed before they could mount a coherent response.

The leadership decapitation was devastating. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed along with IRGC Ground Forces Commander Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Chief of the Military Office Mohammad Shirazi, and dozens of other senior military and political leaders. Trump claimed 40 senior figures were killed. Senior clerical figure Ali Larijani was killed in a separate Israeli strike. Iran's constitutional succession mechanisms had never been tested under active military conflict, and Mojtaba Khamenei was named as the new Supreme Leader, though it remains unclear how much control he actually has. Nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan sustained further damage from the combined June 2025 and February 2026 strikes, though Iran still possesses approximately 440 kilograms of enriched uranium, sufficient for roughly 10 nuclear weapons. One of the American strikes hit the Minab Girls' Elementary School, killing more than 170 schoolgirls. The school had previously been an IRGC facility, meaning the strike was likely based on outdated intelligence.

The stated aim of regime change represented a departure from decades of US declaratory policy, which had maintained that military action against Iran was aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation rather than altering its system of government. The legal and strategic justifications offered by the administration — that Khamenei's personal direction of terrorist proxies and the nuclear program made him a legitimate military target — were immediately contested by international law scholars and key allies. Whatever the legal merits, the operational reality of February 28 is now fixed: it marks the opening act of the first direct large-scale military conflict between the United States and Iran.