Iran war timeline and key moments, explained

From catastrophic and deadly strikes to wars of words: CNN’s reporters discuss the war’s inflection points Since the opening US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, the war in Iran has reshaped the Middle East in real time, with brinkmanship over the Strait of Hormuz and a haphazard final push toward ceasefire. Through reporting from Tehran, Tel Aviv, Washington and beyond, CNN journalists trace the conflict’s defining moments — the military escalations, devastating human toll, market shocks and political reckonings that altered the course of the war, moment by moment. Videos obtained by CNN from social media show smoke across Tehran on Feb. 28. (Obtained from X; X/VAHID) The first indications that a military operation was likely imminent began to emerge hours before the first bombs dropped. I started to get a strong sense of what was coming by late afternoon on February 27, as multiple sources described an array of unusual activity across the US government that all pointed to a looming military operation. At about 2 a.m. local time in DC, a well-placed source said I should make my way into work. For weeks, our team had been reporting on the internal deliberations ins