Photos of the escalating Israel-Iran conflict as attacks continue

Iran launched a new wave of missile attacks on Israel early Thursday as both countries continue to exchange strikes.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Iranian protestors burn representations of the Israeli and U.S. flags during a protest to condemn Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, after the Friday prayers ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian protesters chant slogans as one of them holds up a portrait of Iran's Revolutionary Guard aerospace division commander, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Iran, in front of a model of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque, during a protest to condemn Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, after Friday prayers ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A member of the Israeli security forces checks a damaged area a day after it was hit by an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Yuval, 65, looks out from the window of his damaged apartment a day after of an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A medical staffer walks in a damaged area of the Soroka hospital complex in Beersheba, Israel, after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israelis gather in a public bomb shelter during a missile alert from Iran, in Haifa, Israel,Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the Soroka Medical Center, after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran on Thursday, June 19, 2025 in Beersheba, Israel. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool via AP)

Rescue workers and military personnel inspect the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israeli rescue team evacuate Haim Rasin from his apartment after it was destroyed in an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Rescue workers and military personnel inspect the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The damaged headquarters of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iranian state television, is seen in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Smokes raises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli security forces stand next to a destroyed building that was hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Holon, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming strikes by Iran, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Dust covers framed family photos and personal objects at the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Smokes raises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Rescue workers and military personnel inspect the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A child is evacuated from the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Smokes raises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

The damaged headquarters of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iranian state television, is seen in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A baby is evacuated from the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Patients rest outdoors after a building of the Soroka hospital complex was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Personal objects at the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in an apartment in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The damaged headquarters of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iranian state television, is seen in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman is evacuated from the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Smokes raises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuelans on Saturday were scrambling to understand who is in charge of their country after a U.S. military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro.

President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick: The United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro's most trusted aides.

Delcy Rodríguez has served as Maduro's vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela's oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.

“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump told reporters of Rodríguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, didn't have the support to run the country.

Trump said Rodríguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, “‘We’ll do whatever you need.’”

“I think she was quite gracious,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

Rodríguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party's many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.

“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro," Rodríguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.

There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.

“What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,” Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.

Trump indicated that Rodríguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.

In her televised address, Rodríguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.

“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” she said. “History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.”

The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president’s absence.

But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government’s lack of popular legitimacy and the extraordinary U.S. military intervention.

Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.

“They have attacked us but will not break us,” said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, dressed in fatigues.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to “trust in the political leadership and military” and “get out on the streets” to defend the country’s sovereignty.

“These rats attacked and they will regret what they did,” he said of the U.S.

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodríguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

She and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.

Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodríguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.

Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.

Fluent in English, Rodríguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hardliners who took up arms with Chávez against Venezuela's democratically elected president in the 1990s.

Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.

That presents major challenges to Rodríguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela’s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.

“These leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro’s, and now he very well might do that again,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela's political dynamics over the past three decades.

“A lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now," Smilde said. "If it doesn’t have much firepower anymore, they’re more vulnerable and diminished and it will be easier for her to gain control.”

Shortly before Trump's press conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally Edmundo González — a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election — to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief."

In an triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would “restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.”

She added: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power."

Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: “I think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader," he said.

“She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”

Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women's names. Machado has not responded to Trump's remarks.

Goodman reported from Miami.

Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez gives a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stands on a median strip waving a national flag in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)