Iran War Timeline: Key moments, strikes and warnings before the ceasefire announced by Donald Trump

The United States and Iran on Tuesday (US Time) agreed on a two-week ceasefire deal in the West Asia War triggered after US-Israel joint attacks on Iran on 28 February.

The ceasefire announcement by US President Donald Trump on social media came hours after he threatened to start wiping out Iran’s ‘whole civilisation’ if it allowed vessels to pass safely through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

Hours before the announcement, Pakistan, a mediator in the West Asia war, urged President Trump to stand down from the 8 PM Eastern time (5.30 AM IST on Wednesday) deadline he had set for Iran to accede to his demands.

Here are some key moments in the war that started over a month ago:

28 February, 2026: The US and Israel launched strikes across Iran, hitting a government compound in Tehran and military targets. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other high-level military and intelligence leaders were killed.

At least 175 people, most of them girls, were killed in a strike on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, health officials and Iranian state media said. Later, reports in several US media said the strike was a targeting mistake by the US military

In retaliation, Iran targeted Israeli and US assets across several Gulf countries, causing further disruptions to the waterway and impacting international energy markets as well as global economic stability, disrupting trade routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

1 March: An Iranian drone attack killed six US soldiers in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, the first Americans to die in the war. Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon fired rockets toward Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

8 March: Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the slain supreme leader, as his father’s successor. President Trump called him an “unacceptable” choice.

11 March: Iran struck at least three ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, according to a British maritime agency. Iran claimed responsibility for one assault on a bulk carrier from Thailand. Oil prices surged.

12 March: Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued his first written statement and directed the military to continue choking off the Strait of Hormuz.

At least six US crew members died after a KC-135 military refuelling aircraft crashed in Iraq.

13 March: US bombing on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub. Trump said the raid had targeted military infrastructure.

17 March: Israel killed two of Iran’s top leaders: Ali Larijani, the head of the country’s National Security Council, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, a militia aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

18 March: Israel attacks Iran’s South Pars gas field. Qatar, a US ally, said Iran had struck its Ras Laffan Industrial City, which is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export plant.

23 March: President Trump said the US and Iran were discussing an end to the war.

28 March: Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen joined the war by launching a ballistic missile at Israel that was intercepted.

3 April: Iran shot down a US Air Force F-15E fighter jet carrying two crew members, one of whom was recovered safely that day. The search-and-rescue operation for the second airman lasted two days. The F-15E was the first US combat aircraft to be shot down in the war.

7 April: Donald Trump warns that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz. He sets a 7 April 8 PM(ET) deadline.

Earlier, such deadlines were issued on 21 March (48 hours), 23 March (postponed by 5 days), 26 March (postponed for 10 days) and 4 April (48 hours). The new deadline was 7 April 8 PM (ET), which 5.30 AM, 8 April (IST).

Trump’s comments were condemned by Democrats, some “Make America Great Again” supporters who have since broken with Trump, and the first American pope. Some Republican lawmakers expressed concern that the threat could cause the president to lose public support, the New York Times reported.

Just before Trump’s deadline, the United States and Israel struck key infrastructure in Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying attacks hit railways and bridges allegedly used by the Revolutionary Guards.

Pakistan proposed that each side observe a two-week ceasefire, and that, during that time, Iran allow oil, gas, and other vessels to proceed through the economically vital waterway.

Donald Trump announces a two-week cease-fire with Iran. Iran’s national security council confirmed the agreement.