At 2:17 a.m. local time, early‑warning radars from Iraq to the Gulf lit up in unison as Iran unleashed an unprecedented barrage of 96 hypersonic missiles at US forces across West Asia. By 2:58 a.m., just 41 minutes later, satellite feeds showed 11 major installations reduced to burning craters and twisted metal.

US defence officials say the salvo combined Iran’s newest Fattah‑class and Khyber‑type hypersonics, streaking in at Mach 10+ and violently manoeuvring in their terminal phase to outfox Patriot, THAAD and Aegis shields. Interceptors still knocked down dozens, but tracking logs reveal moments when defence screens were simply “saturated and blind.”

The worst devastation is reported at a sprawling logistics hub in western Iraq, an airbase in eastern Syria and two Gulf‑side drone and bomber platforms. Night‑vision clips show hangars collapsing in fireballs, rows of aircraft shredded on the tarmac and fuel depots erupting into towering columns of flame. Casualty figures remain fluid; internal US estimates already speak of triple‑digit ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and wounded.

In Washington, an emergency National Security Council session stretched into dawn. One senior official called the strike “the first true hypersonic Pearl Harbor,” warning that response options now range from mᴀssive conventional retaliation to cyber blackouts and direct hits on Iran’s leadership bunkers.

Across the region, commanders and civilians alike are asking the same question: if 96 hypersonic missiles can turn 11 fortified bases to ash in under an hour, what does the next wave look like — and can anything on the ground really stop it?