Daniel Estrin

An Israeli military official told reporters that three separate gatherings of senior officials were struck simultaneously Saturday morning local time at the start of the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.

The official said several central government figures in Iran were killed.

President Trump and Netanyahu have called on Iranians to rise up and topple the Iranian regime.

Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

Hi there.

Well, what we know is that the opening attack that Israel carried out this morning along with the U.S.

included this surprise blitz targeting senior Iranian defense officials and Israeli military official briefed reporters and said that the U.S.

and Israel had been looking for the right opportunity and found it.

Three different gatherings simultaneously are what Israel struck this morning and

And initial reports that I was hearing from a person briefed was that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed, or that he was hit, along with Iran's president.

So we were trying to chase that news all day.

And by the evening, Israel confirmed a whole host of top officials killed, including Ali Shakhmani, the personal advisor of the supreme leader,

Also the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's defense minister, a senior intelligence officer, other people tied to Iran's nuclear weapons program.

And it was only late at night when the news finally came from President Trump.

No update on his status at all.

And yeah, I mean, we're going to have to see when all the dust settles who was killed and who survived.

And that's going to say a lot about what will happen next.

Well, all they're saying is that it's going to take as long as necessary.

And the Israelis have announced that already today they carried out the largest aerial operation, the largest Air Force operation in Israeli history with around 200 fighter jets.

So a real blitz at the very beginning.