United States President Donald Trump has said the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran are aimed at “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.

“Short time ago, US military began major combat operation in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” he said on Saturday.

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Trump made a number of other claims and predictions without any concrete evidence, as Iran promised a “crushing” retaliation of its own. Iran is preparing to “take revenge” on Israel and deliver “strong response”, State TV reported.

• “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground.”
• “We are going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region’s ‘terrorist’ proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world.”
• “We will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It is a very simple message.”
• “They will never have a nuclear weapon. This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces.”

Iran has repeatedly said it would never build a nuclear weapon and that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. Neither US intelligence, nor the UN nuclear watchdog have found any evidence that Iran was pursuing an atomic weapon, a narrative Israel and some in the Trump administration have nevertheless pushed.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, said sources told him that “US involvement in this attack is aimed at “decapitating the Iranian regime”.

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“They say that from what they can understand, the attacks were concentrated on areas where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be sheltering, so the intention was to try and take out the head of the regime and then see what would happen afterwards,” he added.

One of the areas targeted in Iran’s capital was near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, The Associated Press reported. Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a secure location, according to an official quoted by Reuters.

“There are countries that have been cautioning the US against this attack and wanted to know what the plan for the day after would be, simply because you can’t guarantee that by removing the supreme leader you would necessarily form a pro-US government,” Fisher said.