'Lay down your weapons': Trump warns Iran's armed forces as US launches military operation

Explosions also reported in countries across the Middle East, with Trump calling the US operation ‘massive and ongoing’

Donald Trump said the US had begun 'major combat operations' in Iran, warning that there may be US casualties. 

The strikes, which the US president said were aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and annihilating its navy, follow repeated US-Israeli warnings that they would strike Iran again if it pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. 

Trump told members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's armed forces, to lay down their weapons, promising they would be granted immunity. The other option, according to Trump, was 'certain death'