The U.S.–Israel Military Campaign Against Iran
On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a coordinated military campaign against Iran — codenamed Operation Epic Fury by the U.S. and Operation Roaring Lion by Israel. The strikes targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile infrastructure, military command sites, and senior government leadership. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes; his death was confirmed by Iranian state media early on March 1. President Trump stated the objective was to eliminate "imminent threats from the Iranian regime," citing Iran's nuclear program and its violent suppression of large-scale domestic protests in January 2026.
Iran responded swiftly with waves of missile and drone strikes against Israel and U.S. military installations across the Gulf region — including in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. Four U.S. service members have been killed in action as of March 2. The conflict follows an earlier U.S. airstrike on Iran's nuclear sites in June 2025, and a brief Iran–Israel war that same summer. As of this writing, the situation remains active and rapidly evolving.
The countries and U.S. military deployments documented in this project are all directly implicated in the current conflict. Iran sits at the center; Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon are home to Iranian-backed militias now under pressure; Gulf states hosting tens of thousands of U.S. troops are absorbing Iranian retaliatory strikes; Israel is a primary combatant; and Turkey and Egypt face mounting pressure to respond diplomatically. The decades of U.S. military presence captured in this data — going back to 1950 — are the foundation for understanding how this moment came to be.