Iran Israel War
Iran strikes back at Israel with missiles over Jerusalem, Tel Aviv..
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Iran launches hundreds of missiles after Israeli strikes on nuclear site
Israel aims to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, Netanyahu says
Trump urges Tehran to halt bombing by reaching nuclear deal
Iran's Supreme Leader accuses Israel of initiating war, vows painful revenge
TEL AVIV/DUBAI/WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes at Israel on Friday night, with explosions heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the country's two largest cities, following Israel's biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy.
Air raid sirens sounded across Israel as authorities urged the public to take shelter. Missiles were seen over Tel Aviv's skyline, with the military saying Iran had fired two salvosIsrael's military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles and most were intercepted or fell short. The U.S. military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel, two U.S. officials said.Israel's Channel 12 said two people were critically injured, eight moderately and 34 slightly from shrapnel.Several buildings were struck in the attack including an apartment block in a residential neighbourhood in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. Another building in central Tel Aviv was also struck, causing significant damage to multiple floors.
The Israeli strikes on Iran throughout the day and the Iranian retaliation raised fears of a broader regional conflagration, although Iran's allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been decimated by Israel.
Iran's state news agency IRNA said Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel after Israel blasted Iran's huge Natanz underground nuclear site and killed its top military commanders. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.Israeli officials said it may be some time before the extent of damage at Natanz was clear. Western countries have long accused Iran of refining uranium there to levels suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.
The above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz has been destroyed, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council on Friday. He said the U.N. was still gathering information about Israeli attacks on two other facilities, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant and at Isfahan.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel of starting a war. A senior Iranian official said nowhere in Israel would be safe and revenge would be painful.Iran's U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said 78 people, including senior military officials, were killed in Israel's strikes on Iran and more than 320 people were wounded, most of them civilians.He accused the U.S. of being complicit in the attacks and said it shared full responsibility for the consequences.
'AS MANY DAYS AS IT TAKES'
Israel's operation "will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV address.
"Generations from now, history will record our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future."Netanyahu, who for decadesabout Iran's nuclear programme, said he authorised the assault to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Israel and its Western allies have said this is Tehran's objective but Iran denies it.Israel's U.N. envoy Danny Danon said intelligence had confirmed that within days Iran would have produced enough fissile material for multiple bombs.Tehran had been engaged in talks with the Trump administration on a deal to curb its nuclear programme to replace one that Trump abandoned in 2018. Tehran rejected the last U.S. offer.
The price of crude leaped on fears of wider retaliatory attacks across the oil-producing region, although there were no reports that oil production or storage was damaged. OPEC said the escalation did not justify any immediate changes to oil supply.
'WE KNEW EVERYTHING,' TRUMP TELLS REUTERS
In a phone interview with Reuters, Trump said nuclear talks between Tehran and the United States, scheduled for Sunday, were still on the agenda though he was not sure if they would take place.
"We knew everything," Trump said of the Israeli attack plans.
"I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out," Trump said. "They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late."
Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said military action by itself would not destroy Iran's nuclear programme, but could "create the conditions for a long-term deal, led by the United States" to get rid of it.
Two regional sources said at least 20 Iranian military commanders were killed, a stunning decapitation reminiscent of Israeli attacks that swiftly wiped out the leadership of Lebanon's once-feared Hezbollah militia last year. Iran also said six of its top nuclear scientists had been killed.
Among the generals killed on Friday were the armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and the Revolutionary Guards chief, Hossein Salami.
Major General Mohammad Pakpour, promoted to replace Salami as Guards commander, vowed retaliation in a letter to the Supreme Leader read on state television: "The gates of hell will open to the child-killing regime."
MOSSAD OPERATED DEEP IN IRAN
An Israeli security source said Mossad commandos had been operating deep inside the Islamic Republic before the attack, and the Israeli spy agency and military had mounted a series of covert operations against Iran's strategic missile array.
Israel also established an attack-drone base near Tehran, the source added. The military said it had bombarded Iran's air defences, destroying "dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers".
Iranians described an atmosphere of fear and anger, with some people hurrying to change money and others seeking a way out of the country to safety.
"People on my street rushed out of their homes in panic. We were all terrified," said Marziyeh, 39, who was awakened by a blast in Natanz.
While some Iranians quietly hoped the attack would lead to changes in Iran's hardline clerical leadership, others vowed to rally behind the authorities.
"I will fight and die for our right to a nuclear programme. Israel and its ally America cannot take it away from us with these attacks," said Ali, a member of the pro-government Basij militia in Qom.
Iran's ability to retaliate with weapons fired by its regional proxies has been sharply degraded over the past year, with the downfall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel said a missile fired from Yemen - whose Houthi militia are Iran-aligned - had landed in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three Palestinian children were wounded by shrapnel there.. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel launched blistering attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure Friday, deploying warplanes and drones previously smuggled into the country to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists — a barrage it said was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon.
Iran retaliated late Friday by unleashing scores of ballistic missiles on Israel, where explosions flared in the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below.In a second round of attacks, sirens and explosions, possibly from Israeli interceptors, could be heard booming in the sky over Jerusalem early Saturday. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by the earlier wave of missiles, to head to shelter.Hours later, an Iranian missile struck near homes in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding 13 people, according to Israel’s paramedic service Magen David Adom.One person was in critical condition, while another was in severe condition, according to the paramedic service. Eli Bin, director of the Magen David Adom, told Israel’s Channel 12 that several people were still trapped.
New wave of Iranian missiles launched
The Iranian outlet Nour News, which has close links with the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said early Saturday that a wave was being launched. Associated Press journalists in Tel Aviv could see at least two Iranian missiles hit the ground, but there was no immediate word of casualties.The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday afternoon at Iran’s request. In a letter to the council, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the killing of its officials and scientists “state terrorism” and affirmed his country’s right to self-defense.
Israel’s military said about 200 aircraft were involved in the initial attack on about 100 targets. Its Mossad spy agency positioned explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran ahead of time, and used them to target Iranian air defenses and missile launchers near Tehran, according to two security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.It was not possible to independently confirm the officials’ claims.
Among the key sites Israel attacked was Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air. It also appeared to strike a second, smaller nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Tehran, according to an Iranian news outlet close to the government that reported hearing explosions nearby.Israel said it struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, too, and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.Israel military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the Natanz facility was “significantly damaged” and that the operation was “still in the beginning.”
Above-ground section of Natanz facility destroyed
U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. He said all the electrical infrastructure and emergency power generators were destroyed, as well as a section of the facility where uranium was enriched up to 60%.The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged the infrastructure there, he said.The first wave of strikes had given Israel “significant freedom of movement” in Iran’s skies, clearing the way for further attacks, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the attack with the media.The official said Israel is prepared for an operation that could last up to two weeks, but that there was no firm timeline.
Among those killed were three of Iran’s top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Iran confirmed all three deaths, significant blows its governing theocracy that will complicate efforts to retaliate. Khamenei said other top military officials and scientists were also killed.
Netanyahu said the attack had been months in the making. In a video statement sent to journalists Friday, he said he ordered plans for the attack last November, soon after the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, one of Iran’s strongest proxies. Netanyahu said the attack was planned for April but was postponed.
In its first response Friday, Iran fired more than 100 drones at Israel. Israel said the drones were being intercepted outside its airspace, and it was not immediately clear whether any got through.Israel’s military said it called up reservists and began stationing troops throughout the country as it braced for further retaliation from Iran or Iranian proxy groups.Trump urged Iran on Friday to reach a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program, warning on his Truth Social platform that Israel’s attacks “will only get worse.”“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” he wrote.On Wednesday, the U.S. pulled some American diplomats from Iraq’s capital and offered voluntary evacuations for the families of U.S. troops in the wider Middle East. On Friday, the U.S. began shifting military resources in the region, including ships, as Israel prepared for more retaliation, two U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Officials in Washington had cautioned Israel against an attack earlier in the week, so as not to disrupt U.S. negotiations with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program. They stressed Friday that the U.S. had not been involved in the attack, and warned against any retaliation targeting U.S. interests or personnel.
Israel calls attacks preemptive strikes on Iran’s nuclear program
Israeli leaders cast the attack as necessary to head off an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that or whether Iran had actually been planning a strike. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.“This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival,” Netanyahu claimed as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to “remove this threat.” Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.
Iran says Israel targeted residential areas
For Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel’s ongoing and increasingly devastating war in Gaza, which is now over 20 months old. There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat. But if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli casualties or major disruptions to daily life, public opinion could shift quickly. The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah issued a statement that offered condolences and condemned the attack, but did not threaten to join Iran in its retaliation. Hezbollah’s latest war with Israel — which killed much of the group’s senior leadership — ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November. Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, said in a statement that Israel “opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centers.”
Netanyahu expressed hope the attacks would trigger the downfall of Iran’s theocracy, saying his message to the Iranian people was that the fight was not with them, but with the “brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years.”
Israel Attacks Iran Live Updates: Israel has launched another strike on Iran, less than 24 hours after it pounded several locations in a series of air strikes on Friday, hitting as many as 100 targets, including Tehran's nuclear and military sites. Two of Iran's top Military commanders and at least six top nuclear scientists were killed in the attack. In retaliation, Tehran launched 100 drones towards Israel, with the Israeli Military saying its air defences were intercepting them outside Israeli territory. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned Israel it faced a "bitter and painful" fate over the attacks.
Israel, meanwhile, declared a state of emergency after the "preemptive" strikes against Iran, targeting its nuclear plant and military sites. Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said that retaliatory action from Tehran was possible following the operation. "Following the State of Israel's preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future," Katz said.
Iran has shut its airspace until further notice after Israel carried out air strikes on multiple targets across the country, including the capital, Tehran. "Public relations of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation announced the closure of the country's airspace until further notice by issuing aeronautical notices (NOTAM)," state TV reported.
Iran has vowed to avenge the attack on its nuclear sites and the assassination in Tehran of its senior military leadership, saying it would respond forcefully and that the “end of this story will be written by Iran’s hand”.
In the first signs of a counterstrike, Israel said Iran had launched 100 drones towards Israel and that its air defences were intercepting them outside Israeli territory.
Iraq said more than 100 Iranian drones had crossed its airspace and, soon after, neighbouring Jordan said its air force and defence systems intercepted several missiles and drones that had entered its airspace, for fear they would fall in its territory.
Iran, in serious military disarray, denied it had launched any drones and claimed its counterstrike had not been launched.
Responding to what amounted to the most serious and largest ever attack by Israel, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment” and claimed residential areas had been targeted.
The Iranian leadership vowed a military and diplomatic response, saying women and children had been killed in the strikes across Iran. The Fars news agency claimed 78 people had been killed and more than 300 injured in Tehran province alone. A vast swathe of Iran’s military and air force leadership has been wiped out, and as many as six scientists working on Iran’s nuclear programme.
It remains to be seen if Iran will decide to attack US military sites in the Middle East, but its leaders will have heard Donald Trump praising Israel’s actions and claiming the US had known about the attacks in advance, even if it did not take part.
Iran also faces a decision on whether to accept Trump’s offer to continue with the bilateral talks on a diplomatic solution to its nuclear programme. The sixth round of Oman-brokered talks involving the US special envoy Steve Witkoff were due to be held in Muscat on Sunday.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, did not announce that the talks had been ended by the Israeli strike. Instead he said Israel had crossed every red line, accused Israel of a declaration of war, and called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, told the council that the above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Iran’s main nuclear facility in Natanz had been been destroyed, although he said the level of radioactivity outside the plant remained unchanged.
Iranian officials dismissed Trump’s suggestion that Tehran should have expected an attack since a 60-day deadline the US president claimed he had set for the talks had expired.
In a furious statement, the Iranian government accused Israel of terrorism and insisted the attack demonstrated it “does not adhere to any international rules or laws and, like a drunkard, openly and brazenly engages in terror and ignites the flames of war before the eyes of the world, including westerners who claim to uphold human rights and international law”.
“Starting a war with Iran is playing with the lion’s tail,” the statement added.
In a telling warning that the Iranian regime, if it survives, may now indeed feel the need to try to assemble a nuclear bomb in the face of Israel’s attacks, the statement further said: “The world now better understands Iran’s insistence on the right to enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power, and the enemy has made it possible to prove our injustice and righteousness, who is the aggressor and which regime is threatening the security of the region.”
Hardline MPs called on the supreme leader to lift the fatwa that is supposed to prevent Iran pursuing a nuclear programme. With its axis of resistance weakened over the past year by Israel’s actions, there has been a growing lobby arguing that Iran needs a nuclear bomb to defend itself.
Among those killed by Israeli strikes were Gen Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards; Gen Gholamali Rashid, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander; the nuclear scientist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi; and Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
Replacements for two of the top roles were announced within hours of the attack. Maj Gen Abdolrahim Mousavi was appointed as chief of staff of the armed forces, replacing Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, who was killed in the Israeli attack. Khamenei chose Mohammad Pakpour to lead the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, replacing Salami, state television reported.
Residential buildings across Tehran were hit. Pictures showed that specific floors on high-rise apartments were struck, but the damage had spread to many different floors.
Army barracks across the country appear to have been hit, with reports of deaths and damage. But Isfahan regional governors said there had been no leakage of uranium from the Natanz nuclear facility.
No electricity or oil installations were struck, but Israel may well return to hit economic targets in the coming days, depending on any Iranian response. It has also not sought to assassinate any of Iran’s political or diplomatic leadership.
Iran, aware that the savage blow to its prestige may lead to some form of uprising, urged its citizens to listen only to official channels, and ignore rumours.
The planned sixth round of talks, the first in which both sides had put forward proposals in writing, were to focus on whether Iran would be allowed to continue domestic uranium enrichment with monitoring by the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iran says it does not have a covert plan to build a nuclear bomb, but all signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty including Iran have a sovereign right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
It says the comprehensive report put to the IAEA board this week showed no evidence that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon. The report did say it could not be certain that the nuclear programme was entirely civilian in purpose. Tehran has consistently argued that its increased stockpiles of highly enriched uranium is a calculated and legitimate response to Donald Trump unilaterally withdrawing in 2018 from the nuclear deal agreed with Barack Obama three years earlier and imposing economic sanctions.
The highly experienced Iranian negotiating team were aware that Israel was increasingly worried that Trump, facing an open war for his ear on Iran in Washington, might strike an unsatisfactory deal with Iran. But the consensus among Arab diplomats was that Trump was sincere in saying he did not want Israel to strike.
The belief among Iranian negotiators that they had further time before Trump implicitly or explicitly sanctioned military action looks, in retrospect, to have been a severe error. But the right to enrich has been an Iranian red line for decades, and they will reject the accusation they overplayed a weak hand.
Moreover, Iranian diplomats had been led to believe initially that the US would permit Iran to continue some form of uranium enrichment, but had been struggling to convert that belief into a specific American offer in the talks held in Oman and Rome. Iran will now have to reflect whether it was being played by the US negotiators, or whether Israel has the freedom of action to mount such an assault without a green light from Washington.
To many Iranian eyes, despite the reports that Trump was distancing himself from Israel, the US president has done little in practice since taking office to restrain Israel either in Gaza or across the region.
Iran’s air defences have proved ineffective, partly due to the previous airstrikes launched by Israel in October that took out Russian-made air defence systems, including around its nuclear sites.
One of the few cards Iran has to play is that in recent months it has managed to improve its fractured relations with Arab states in the region, even though its policy of forward defence based on proxy groups in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Iraq was largely dismantled by Israel. But the valued Gulf state sympathy for Iran is not likely to extend to joint military action against Israel.
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Posted on 2025/06/14 02:04 PM