State Department tells Americans worldwide to 'exercise increased caution'

The war entered its fourth week on Saturday.

Last Updated: March 22, 2026, 8:29 PM EDT

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israel strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes and his son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed him. Iran is responding with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Iran is also attempting to block some shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

Watch special coverage on Nightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Mar 21, 2026, 12:20 PM EDT

Iran says its Natanz nuclear facility was targeted again in US-Israeli attack

Iranian media is reporting that U.S.-Israeli strikes again targeted Iran's Natanz nuclear facility Saturday morning.

No leakage of radioactive materials has been reported in the complex and there is no danger to residents in the surrounding area, according to social media posts by the Iranian judiciary's Mizan News Agency and Iran's semiofficial, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.

CENTCOM declined to comment on this or provide details. ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces.

A satellite image shows a closer view of the Natanz Nuclear Facility with new building damage, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, near Natanz, Iran, March 2, 2026.
Vantor via Reuters

Earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations -- confirmed that entrances to Iran's underground and previously bombed uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz had been recently damaged by the U.S.-Israeli strikes on the country.

-ABC News' Morgan Winsor

Mar 21, 2026, 6:43 AM EDT

Israeli-US strikes against Iran will 'increase significantly,' Israeli defense minister says

Airstrikes by Israel and the United States against Iran will "increase significantly" in intensity, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Saturday.

"This week, the intensity of the attacks that the IDF and the U.S. military will carry out against the Iranian terrorist regime and against the infrastructures on which it relies will increase significantly, and the campaign led by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue," Katz said in remarks at an military operations center in Tel Aviv.

"We are determined to continue leading the attack against the Iranian terrorist regime, to behead its commanders and thwart its strategic capabilities -- until all security threats to the State of Israel and U.S. interests in the region are removed," Katz said. "We will not stop until all war goals are achieved."

-ABC News' Dana Savir

Mar 20, 2026, 7:14 PM EDT

Trump says US 'very close' to meeting objectives in Iran, considering 'winding down' military efforts

President Donald Trump said Friday he's considering "winding down" military efforts in the Middle East amid the ongoing war in Iran, claiming his administration is getting "very close" to meeting their objectives there.

Those objectives, Trump outlined in a social media post Friday, include "completely degrading" Iran's missile capability; eliminating Iran's navy and air force; "destroying" its defense industrial base; "never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability"; and protecting the U.S.' Middle Eastern allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The president did not make clear how the U.S. military has materially achieved his objectives.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, March 20, 2026, in Washington.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Trump also said that the Strait of Hormuz will need to be "guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it" -- making clear that the U.S. does not use the strait, but also that he'd "help" the countries that do with "their Hormuz efforts."

He appeared to pass off the responsibility of opening the strait to other nations, without making clear which ones.

"If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn't be necessary once Iran's threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them," Trump wrote.

-ABC News' Isabella Murray

Mar 20, 2026, 4:47 PM EDT

Trump says Strait of Hormuz 'will open itself at a certain point'

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that the Strait of Hormuz can open with a “simple military maneuver” and “it will open itself at a certain point,” without elaborating further.


“It's a simple military maneuver. It's relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense of: you need ships, you need volume. And, NATO could help us, but they so far haven't had the courage to do so,” Trump said while departing the White House for Palm Beach.


“And others could help us, but we don't use it. At a certain point, it will open itself at a certain point, but we've defeated the enemy,” Trump said.


Earlier in the day, Trump blasted allies on social media, saying they “don’t want to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver.”


Trump also said he doesn’t want a ceasefire with Iran when the U.S. has the upper hand and is “obliterating” the country.


"We can have a dialogue, but we don't – I don't want to do a ceasefire. You don't do a ceasefire when you're literally obliterating the other side. They don't have a navy, they don't have an Air Force, they don't have any equipment -- they don't have any spotters, they don't have anti aircraft, they don't have radar and their leaders have all been killed at every level," Trump said.

-ABC News' Selina Wang

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