Nobody knows what I’m going to do, says Trump

Senior officials in the US are getting ready for a possible strike on Iran in the coming days, Bloomberg reports, citing “people familiar with the matter.” Some of the sources say that a strike over the weekend is a possibility. The sources say that the situation is in flux and could still change, the report says. US President Donald Trump would not say Wednesday whether he had decided to order a US strike on Iran, a move that Tehran warned again would be greeted with stiff retaliation. “I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White House amid growing speculation the US could be on the verge of joining the Israeli offensive. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”  Speaking later, Trump said Iran was only “a few weeks away” from having a nuclear weapon before Israel began striking the Islamic Republic and that he now wants “total victory,” not a ceasefire. “You know what the victory is? No nuclear weapon,” Trump added. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, a human rights group says.
The US military has moved some aircraft and ships from bases in the Middle East that may be vulnerable to any potential Iranian attack, two US officials tell Reuters. The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, say the move was part of planning to protect US forces. They decline to say how many aircraft or ships had been moved and where they would be going.
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists releases the figures, which cover the entirety of Iran. It says of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel killed. Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, cross-checks local reports in Iran against a network of sources it has developed in the country.Iran has not given regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded.