American warplanes and ship-launched cruise missiles struck five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile complexes deep inside Iran in the overnight hours of Wednesday and Thursday, the Pentagon said, in what U.S. officials described as the largest single American operation since the war with Iran erupted in early March and the most direct retaliation yet for Monday’s attack on Ain al-Asad airbase that killed nine U.S. service members.

The strikes, which began shortly before 2 a.m. local time and continued for roughly 90 minutes, targeted missile-production and launch facilities at Khorramabad and Kermanshah in western Iran, an underground storage site near Tabriz, and two sprawling IRGC bases on the outskirts of Isfahan and near Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf coast, the Defense Department said in a morning briefing. At least 18 B-2 Spirit and B-1B bombers flying from forward positions at Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford participated, supported by F-35s operating off the carrier Gerald R. Ford in the Arabian Sea and more than 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from destroyers and a guided-missile submarine, according to a senior defense official.

“The president made clear after the attack on Ain al-Asad that the United States would respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. “Last night, we chose. The targets struck were directly involved in the planning, production and launching of the ballistic missiles fired at American service members. The American people should expect that we will continue to defend our forces with the full weight of our military if Tehran chooses further escalation.”

Hegseth said initial battle-damage assessments indicated “significant degradation” of the targeted facilities but cautioned that a full assessment would take days. He declined to confirm whether senior IRGC commanders had been killed in the strikes, saying only that all U.S. aircraft had returned safely to base.

Iranian state television reported within hours that the strikes had killed at least 64 people, including civilians at residential buildings near the Isfahan base, and described the operation as a “criminal act of aggression against the Iranian nation.” A statement attributed to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, read on state radio shortly after sunrise in Tehran, said Iran reserved the right to a “crushing response at the time, place and scale of its choosing.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, returning to Tehran from the Turkey-mediated talks in Islamabad, was reported to be en route to an emergency session of the Supreme National Security Council.

The IRGC’s aerospace force commander, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who claimed responsibility for the Ain al-Asad attack on Monday, said in a brief televised appearance that the United States had “lit a fire it cannot put out.”

Israeli officials, briefed on the operation in advance, voiced support but distanced themselves from any direct participation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the American action “necessary and proportionate,” while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Air Force was “fully postured” for any Iranian counterstrike on Israeli territory.

In Washington, where Congress is on a brief Easter recess, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the president had “acted decisively to defend American lives,” while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he had been “informed but not consulted” and called for an urgent classified briefing for the full Senate. The War Powers resolution filed last week by House Democrats, which had appeared unlikely to advance, gained at least seven new co-sponsors in the hours after the strikes, including two Republicans, congressional aides said.

The Islamabad peace talks, which had entered their fifth day on Wednesday with Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as mediators, were thrown into immediate doubt. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told reporters that mediators “remain committed to the framework” but that Iran’s delegation had requested a 24-hour pause “to consult with leadership in Tehran.” A senior Western diplomat involved in the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strikes had “narrowed the off-ramp considerably but not closed it.”

“The Iranians have been signaling for two weeks that they need a face-saving exit, and last night’s strikes make that harder, not easier,” said John Reilly, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “But neither side has yet done the thing that would make a ceasefire impossible. They have both been calibrating, even when the numbers go up.”

Markets, which had been recovering after Tuesday’s OPEC+ decision to add roughly 1.5 million barrels per day of production, swung sharply on the news. Brent crude, which closed Tuesday near $111 a barrel, surged past $122 in Asian trading before easing back to around $116 by midmorning in London. The S&P 500 was set to open more than 1.5 percent lower in New York, gold pushed back above $2,700 an ounce, and the Treasury 10-year yield fell nine basis points to 3.92 percent as investors rotated into safe-haven assets.

In the Gulf, civil aviation authorities expanded airspace restrictions around Bandar Abbas, eastern Saudi airspace, and approaches to Dubai International Airport. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad each suspended or rerouted flights through the affected corridors for at least 24 hours, the carriers said in advisories issued before dawn.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by the widening of the war and called on “all parties to step back from the brink.” The Security Council was scheduled to convene in emergency consultations Thursday afternoon at the request of Russia and China, which had circulated draft language condemning the U.S. strikes.

In a brief appearance on the South Lawn before boarding Marine One for a previously scheduled trip to Florida, President Donald Trump said the United States had “sent a message that will be heard in Tehran for a long time” and that he hoped “the Iranian regime now understands what continued aggression will cost them.” Asked whether further strikes were planned, the president said only that “all options remain on the table.”

Pentagon officials said additional defensive deployments to the region, including a second Patriot battalion and an extension of the carrier strike group’s deployment, would be announced in the coming days.