2025 – Present
ONGOINGIn June 2025, the United States conducted precision airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — the most direct US military action against Iran in decades. The strikes, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, aimed to set back Iran's nuclear program by years and reshaped the Middle East's strategic balance.
Deep Root
The 1953 CIA- and MI6-backed coup that ousted Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh set Iran on a path toward the 1979 Islamic Revolution and decades of anti-American hostility. Nearly every US-Iran confrontation since — hostage crisis, proxy wars, sanctions, nuclear standoff — flows from that intervention.
Pattern of Intervention
Operation Countenance (1941) saw Britain and the Soviet Union jointly invade and occupy Iran to secure oil supply lines and prevent any tilt toward Nazi Germany. It established a pattern of major-power military action on Iranian soil for strategic resource reasons that Iran has never forgotten.
Regional Context
The Gulf War cemented a permanent US military presence across the Middle East. The post-1991 network of US bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait defined Iran's encirclement anxiety and its conviction that a nuclear deterrent was the only guarantee of regime survival.
Chapter-by-chapter narrative with maps, primary sources, and key events.
Explore battles on a live map with a timeline slider and territory overlays.
Deep-dive into every major engagement — commanders, casualties, significance.
Biographical flip cards with real portraits, facts, and full biography pages.
Trace each figure's full life journey — birth, education, battles, and death — on a live map.
Scroll-driven visualization of casualties — each dot a thousand lives.
Weapons, war machines, and the military innovations that defined how this conflict was fought.
Cause-and-effect chains tracing the war's long shadow on history.
War crimes, massacres, and the darkest chapters of this conflict — documented for history.
In June 2025, the United States conducted precision airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — the most direct US military action against Iran in decades. The strikes, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, aimed to set back Iran's nuclear program by years and reshaped the Middle East's strategic balance.
US–Iran Conflict was fought from 2025 to the present day.
US–Iran Conflict was fought between United States and Iran.
An estimated 580 people died in US–Iran Conflict, including roughly 500 military and 80 civilian deaths. Figures are scholarly estimates and vary by source.
Major engagements included Strike on Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, Strike on Natanz Nuclear Complex, Strike on Isfahan Nuclear Research Center, and US Strikes on IRGC Proxy Militia Facilities.