STORY: TRUMP: "It's just a very evil ideology."
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday sought to justify a broad, open-ended air war on Iran, saying he ordered the strikes because he had "a feeling" Iran would attack, after negotiations over its nuclear program stalled.
TRUMP: "You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics (referring to Iranians) and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that."
Trump presented no evidence to support that view. And Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon.
TRUMP: "But if we didn't do what we're doing right now, you would have had a nuclear war and they would have taken out many countries because, you know what? They're sick people. They're mentally ill. Sick people."
Trump also said the U.S. military had been successful against many Iranian naval and air targets.
TRUMP: "Just about everything's been knocked out."
Explosions rocked Tehran again on Tuesday.
Iran has responded to U.S. and Israeli attacks by firing missiles and drones at neighboring Gulf Arab states and at Israel, and by strangling shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Tuesday, a building and cars were seen damaged in Israel's Tel Aviv district, after it sustained a hit from fragments of munition during an Iranian missile strike.
Tourists in Jerusalem rushed to shelter as sirens warned of incoming missiles.
The sirens were followed by explosions as some of the missiles were seen being intercepted above the city.
And plumes of smoke were seen rising near the Israel-Lebanon border.
Lebanon was pulled deeper into the war on Tuesday, as the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel for a second consecutive day.
Meanwhile, Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon and carried out waves of air strikes.
Trump has suggested the war could take four or five weeks, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is "not going to take years."
