Iran fires back at Israel after onslaught targets nuclear facilities

Iran struck Israel early on Saturday with barrages of missiles in response to an latter’s onslaught on the Islamic republic’s nuclear and military facilities yesterday that killed several top generals.

The missile salvo comes after nearly 80 people, including senior military officials, were killed while over 300 were wounded in Iran a day ago as a result of Israel’s strikes, according to the country’s UN envoy Saeed Iravani.

What we know so far:

• Military officers, scientists, civilians among 78 killed in Israeli strikes on Friday; 320 injured
• Iran launches response as part of ‘Operation True Promise 3’
• Khamenei appoints new military brass after top commanders, including IRGC chief Hossein Salami, killed
• Radiation ‘unchanged’ in Iran’s Natanz area; ‘limited damage’ to Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites

In the morning, Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks, state media said, after Israel’s military reported it detected inbound missiles from Tehran.

A senior Iranian military official, General Ahmad Vahidi, said “Operation True Promise 3” — as the retaliatory strikes are dubbed — will continue for as long as necessary“, according to Iranian state media IRNA.

Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel overnight, with its military calling on residents to take refuge in bomb shelters in the morning.

The Israeli military said dozens of missiles — some intercepted — had been fired in the latest salvos from Iran.

Smoke was billowing above skyscrapers in downtown Tel Aviv, an AFP journalist reported, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.

Israel’s firefighting service said its teams were responding to the aftermath of Iranian missile strikes, including working to rescue people trapped in a high-rise building.

Rescuers said 34 people had been wounded in the Gush Dan area, including a woman who later died of her injuries, according to Israeli media reports.

Resident Chen Gabizon told AFP he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert notification.

“After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place,” he said.

In Tehran earlier today, fire and heavy smoke billowed from Mehrabad airport, an AFP journalist said, as local media reported a blast in the area.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN said on Friday that 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes by Israel.

Iran said earlier it had activated its air-defence system and explosions could be heard across the capital.

A senior Iranian official told CNN that Iran would intensify its attacks on Israel and target the regional bases of any country that “attempts to defend the regime”.

Dozens of people took to the streets of Tehran overnight to cheer their country’s military response, with some waving national flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

Iranian outlets Mehr and Tasnim reported that a female Israeli pilot was captured. However, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic spokesperson of the Israeli military, denied the reports, according to Times of Israel.

After a day of back-and-forth bombardments, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the two nations to cease fire.

“Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail,” he wrote on X earlier today.

Calls for dialogue

US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to do with Israel’s strikes on Iran.

US President Donald Trump agreed on a call with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that “dialogue and diplomacy” were needed to calm the crisis, Starmer’s office said.

Trump also spoke with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, US officials said, without elaborating.

Iran’s missile salvo came hours after Israel said its widespread air raids had killed several top Iranian generals, including most of the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force.

It had launched several rounds of strikes that hit about 200 targets, including nuclear facilities and air bases.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to bring Israel “to ruin” during a televised address.

In Israel, Netanyahu issued a statement calling on the Iranian public to unite against their own government. But he also warned more attacks were coming.

“In the past 24 hours, we have taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime’s most significant enrichment facility and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal,” Netanyahu said.

While stressing that it was not involved in the Israeli attacks, the United States warned Iran not to attack its personnel or interests.

Tehran nevertheless said Washington would be “responsible for consequences”.

Commanders killed

The strikes killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.

Khamenei swiftly appointed new commanders to replace those killed. Major General Seyyed Abdulrahim Mousavi was appointed to replace Bagheri, while Major Gen Mohammad Pakpour was chosen as the new head of the Revolutionary Guards, according to IRNA. Gen Amir Hatami was made the new army chief.

“The senior chain of command of the air force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had assembled in an underground command centre to prepare for an attack on the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said, adding that its attacks had killed most of them.

Iran confirmed that the Guards’ aerospace commander had been killed, along with “a group of brave and dedicated fighters”.

AFP images showed a gaping hole in the side of a Tehran residential building that appeared to have sustained a targeted strike.

Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were among the dead.

Oil prices surged while stocks sank on the Israeli strikes.

‘We knew everything’: Trump still hopeful for deal

The conflict raised questions as to whether Sunday’s sixth round of talks planned between the United States and Iran to seek a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme would go ahead in Oman.

After the first wave of strikes on Friday, Trump urged Iran to “make a deal” while noting that a 60-day ultimatum had expired. He added that Washington was “hoping to get back to the negotiating table”.

After months of urging Israel not to strike Iran while he worked toward a nuclear deal, Trump told Reuters in a phone interview on Friday that he and his team had known the attacks were coming — and still saw room for an accord.

“We knew everything, and I tried to save Iran [from] 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,” he added.

Trump’s shifting stance around the Israeli strikes, which he called “excellent” and “very successful” in a series of media interviews on Friday, offered one of the most striking examples yet of how he conducts high-stakes negotiations through both frank public rhetoric and behind-the-scenes maneuovers.

Iran confirmed that above-ground sections of the Natanz enrichment plant had been destroyed, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels outside the site “remained unchanged”.

“Most of the damage is on the surface level,” said the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran’s spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.

Iran said there was only limited damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites.

The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.

Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the “point of no return” on its nuclear programme.

Israel had called for global action after the IAEA accused Iran on Thursday of non-compliance with its obligations.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67pc limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90pc threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.