Trump Calls Iran’s Government a ‘Global Killer’ as Explosions Rock Every Corner of the Middle East

President Donald Trump used the language of international criminality on Friday to describe Iran’s government, calling its leaders “deranged scumbags” who had spent 47 years killing innocent people around the world. He declared it a great honor to be overseeing their deaths and promised dramatically intensified military strikes in the coming days. The comments came as explosions were reported not just in Tehran but across a vast arc of the Middle East, from Beirut to Doha, from Sidon to Sohar, in what has become one of the most widely dispersed regional conflicts in modern history.
Iran’s campaign of strikes against Gulf state infrastructure reached new intensity on Friday, with Saudi Arabia intercepting close to 50 drones in a single day of intensive defensive operations. Qatar’s interior ministry issued evacuation orders for parts of Doha before explosions were heard in the capital and a missile was confirmed intercepted by the defence ministry. Two people were killed in Oman when drones crashed in an industrial area near the port city of Sohar. Debris from an intercepted Iranian projectile damaged a building at the Dubai International Financial Centre, home to some of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions.
US and Israeli forces continued to strike Iran itself with enormous force. Combined strikes since the war’s beginning have exceeded 15,000 enemy targets, with Israel alone reporting more than 200 individual strikes in the most recent 24 hours. Trump announced late Friday that US Central Command had completely destroyed every military installation on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export hub, in one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East. He warned that the island’s oil infrastructure would be struck next if Iran continued to disrupt Strait of Hormuz shipping.
Lebanon remains one of the most heavily affected countries in the conflict. More than 600 people have been killed and 800,000 displaced since the latest fighting began. Israeli forces struck the coastal city of Sidon on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding nine. Israel also targeted the Zrarieh Bridge over the Litani River, claiming Hezbollah was using it for troop movements. Hezbollah fired rocket salvoes at northern Israel in return, injuring about 60 people. Israel’s defence minister warned that Lebanon would face an escalating price for Hezbollah’s use of its infrastructure.
Iran has reported over 1,300 deaths since the conflict began with the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran residents described a city of relentless bombardment, with one shopkeeper counting six explosions in a single hour and a retired professor begging the international community to intervene before the city was completely destroyed. The United States has lost 13 service members, including six in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq. France lost one soldier in Iraq to a pro-Iranian militia drone. Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was described as wounded and hiding underground by US officials, who dismissed his written statement of defiance as a sign of desperation.