India, April 8 -- The United States, Iran and Israel have agreed to a two-week ceasefire in a last-minute deal before the deadline given by US President Donald Trump, threatening to begin a bombing campaign which he said would destroy the Iranian civilisation.

However, US defence officials were in the dark until Trump made the decisive call regarding the truce with Tehran.

"We had no idea what was going to happen. It was wild," Axios cited a defence official as saying. According to the Axios report, in the hours before the ceasefire was announced, US forces in the Middle East and officials in the Pentagon had been preparing for a massive bombing campaign on Iranian infrastructure. They were also trying to figure out which way Trump was ...