Israel launches strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, missile factories
Israel carried out strikes against Iran on Friday, targeting its nuclear and military sites, after US President Donald Trump warned of a possible “massive conflict” in the region.
Israel’s operation struck at the “heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme”, taking aim at the atomic facility in Natanz and nuclear scientists, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The operation against Iran will “continue as many days as it takes,” Netanyahu said.
Iranian state media said residential buildings in Tehran were also hit, killing a number of civilians, including women and children.
The strikes took place overnight, as unconfirmed images and footage began to appear on social media of Tehran’s skyline, with plumes of smoke seen rising to the sky in several locations, Iran’s state-run IRNA reported.
Images showed damaged residential buildings in several locations in the capital. Eyewitnesses and reporters from the state TV said they saw the bodies of women and children among the victims.
Fire and smoke were seen at a key site for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, state TV reported, while explosions were also heard in Natanz city in Iran’s central province.
Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami was assassinated in the attack, IRNA reported.
Israel’s attack on Iran hit a key uranium enrichment facility in the country’s centre multiple times, state TV reported.
The “Natanz enrichment facility has been hit several times,” state TV reported, showing footage of heavy smoke billowing from the site.
Air traffic was halted at Tehran’s main international airport Imam Khomeini, while neighbouring Iraq has also closed its airspace and suspended all flights at all airports, state media reported.
Israel declared a state of emergency, likewise closing its airspace, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying 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.
An Israeli military official added that the Israeli army believed that Iran had the ability to strike Israel “any minute”.
Several children had been killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital, it said.
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.
“Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had “unleashed its wicked and bloody” hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive “a bitter fate for itself”.
An Israeli military official said Israel was striking “dozens” of nuclear and military targets, including the facility at Natanz in central Iran.
US “not involved”
US President Donald Trump would convene a meeting of the National Security Council on Friday morning, the White House said.
Iran’s armed forces spokesperson said Israel and its chief ally the United States would pay a “heavy price” for the attack, accusing Washington of providing support for the operation.
An Israeli official told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan that Israel had coordinated with Washington on the strikes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, said the United States was not involved and Tel Aviv had acted unilaterally for self-defence.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement.
“Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel,” he added.
The State Department issued an advisory saying that all US government employees in Israel and their family members should “shelter in place until further notice”.
The attacks triggered sharp falls in stock prices in early Asian trade on Friday, led by a selloff in US futures, while oil prices jumped as investors scurried to safe havens such as gold and the Swiss franc.
“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday when asked if an Israeli attack loomed.
The US president had also said the US was drawing down staff in the region.
Trump said he believed a “pretty good” deal on Iran’s nuclear programme was “fairly close”, but said that an Israeli attack on its arch foe could wreck the chances of an agreement.
The US leader did not disclose the details of a conversation on Monday with Netanyahu, but said: “I don’t want them going in, because I think it would blow it.”
Trump quickly added: “Might help it actually, but it also could blow it.”
‘Extremist’
The United States on Wednesday said it was reducing embassy staff in Iraq — long a zone of proxy conflict with Iran.
Israel, which counts on US military and diplomatic support, sees the state as an existential threat and attacked Iranian air defences last year.
The United States and other Western countries, along with Israel, have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, which it has repeatedly denied.
Israel again called for global action after the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency accused Iran on Wednesday of non-compliance with its obligations.
The resolution could lay the groundwork for European countries to invoke a “snapback” mechanism, which expires in October, that would reinstate UN sanctions eased under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the then-US president Barack Obama.
Trump pulled out of the deal in his first term and slapped Iran with sweeping sanctions.
Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, slammed the resolution as “extremist” and blamed Israeli influence.
In response to the resolution, Iran said it would launch a new enrichment centre in a secure location.
Iran would also replace “all of these first-generation machines with sixth-generation advanced machines” at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant, said Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67pc limit set in the 2015 deal and close, though still short, of the 90pc needed for a nuclear warhead.