The United States and Israel have launched one of the most sweeping military campaigns in decades — and the first American casualties are already in.
Operation Epic Fury, the U.S.-led air campaign against Iran, kicked off at 9:45 a.m. Tehran time on February 28, striking more than 1,000 targets in its opening 24 hours alone. The operation ran in lockstep with Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion, and together the two campaigns have fundamentally reshaped the strategic landscape of the Middle East — possibly overnight. Three American service members are dead. Iran’s supreme leader is gone. And back in Washington, Congress is now scrambling to figure out what exactly it’s supposed to do about any of this.
A Campaign Built for Shock
The scale of the first day was staggering, even by modern military standards. U.S. forces targeted Iranian command centers, ballistic missile sites, naval vessels, and air defense systems — all within a single 24-hour window. B-2 stealth bombers dropped 2,000-pound bombs on Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure, according to reports from the region. Tomahawk cruise missiles, suicide drones, and attack aircraft all played a role in what became a relentless, multi-vector blitz across the country.
Israel matched that tempo in the air. The Israeli Air Force flew more than 700 sorties since hostilities began, dropping upward of 1,200 munitions on Iranian targets as part of its coordinated role in the joint operation, documented by defense analysts tracking the campaign. The IDF didn’t mince words about what it had achieved in the skies over the Iranian capital. “In recent hours, Israeli Air Force aircraft have been operating with air superiority in the skies over Tehran, striking and eliminating numerous targets,” the military stated as the operation moved into its second day.
Khamenei Is Dead
That’s the line that changes everything. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — the man who has directed Iranian policy, funded proxy militias across the region, and defied Western pressure for more than three decades — was killed in the strikes, along with dozens of senior regime officials and military commanders, according to multiple outlets. The combined operations weren’t just designed to degrade Iran’s military capacity. They were designed to decapitate its leadership structure entirely.
The full list of who was eliminated and what remains functional inside Iran’s chain of command is still being compiled. But the strategic intent is no longer ambiguous. This wasn’t a warning shot.
Three Americans Won’t Be Coming Home
How bad is it on the U.S. side? Three service members have been killed during the operation, the first confirmed American combat deaths of the campaign. Details on their identities and the circumstances of their deaths have not been fully released as of publication. Still, their loss signals something important: whatever this operation was called in the planning rooms at the Pentagon, it’s a war now — and wars have a cost.
The weapons deployed paint a picture of just how large that operation was. Tomahawk cruise missiles, B-2 stealth bombers, fighter jets, and what the military has described as “special capabilities” were all part of the arsenal used in the opening salvo. Over a thousand targets in a single day. That’s not a surgical strike. That’s a campaign.
Congress Wakes Up
Back on Capitol Hill, the constitutional machinery is grinding into motion — slowly, as it tends to do. Lawmakers are now preparing to debate war powers and the extent of President Donald Trump’s authority to order and sustain strikes against Iran without a formal declaration of war from Congress, noted by outlets covering the legislative fallout. It’s a debate that’s happened before — after Iraq, after Syria, after Yemen — and it rarely ends with Congress asserting meaningful control over military action already underway.
But it’s not that simple this time. The scope of Epic Fury — the elimination of a sitting head of state, the coordination with a foreign military, the casualties — raises the constitutional stakes considerably. The War Powers Resolution gives Congress a 60-day window to act once the President notifies them of hostilities. Whether the White House has done that, or intends to, remains an open question.
What Comes Next
Iran’s government is, at least partially, headless. Its air defenses have been struck. Its missile sites have been bombed. And Israeli jets are flying over Tehran with what the IDF is calling air superiority. The question now isn’t whether the opening phase of this war succeeded on its own terms — by the numbers, it appears to have been executed with devastating efficiency. The question is what fills the vacuum. History has a way of answering that question in the most inconvenient ways possible.
Three Americans are dead. A supreme leader is gone. And Congress is just now finding its voice. Whatever Operation Epic Fury was meant to end, it’s hard to shake the feeling that something else has just begun.
