A state of emergency was declared in Israel today after a series of strikes across Iran.
The Israeli strikes on Iran killed Hossein Salami, chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards – a powerful branch of the country’s armed forces.
As well as senior military figures and nuclear scientists.
The US said it was not involved in the strikes, which hit Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility.
Locations and Time of Israeli Strikes on Iran.
Iranian state TV said residential areas in Tehran were hit, with blasts also heard north-east of Tehran.
Explosions were reported in Iran’s capital Tehran around 03:30 local time (01:00 BST).
Israel’s military said it had struck “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran”.
Hours after the initial strikes, an explosion was reported at the Natanz nuclear facility, which is located about 225km (140 miles) south of the capital, according to Iranian state media.
The global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), later confirmed the Natanz facility had been hit.
The IAEA said it was informed by Iranian authorities that there has been no increase in radiation levels at the Natanz site.
Israeli Strikes on Iran – Operation Rising Lion
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes – called Operation Rising Lion – were “a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”.
He said the operation would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove the spread”.
“In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponise this enriched uranium.
If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time.
It could be a year. It could be within a few months, less than a year.
This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.”
In his address, Netanyahu also thanked US President Donald Trump for “confronting Iran’s nuclear weapons programme”.
Iran Response to Israel Strikes
Iran’s foreign ministry said its armed forces would not “hesitate to defend Iran’s sovereignty with full strength and in the manner they deem appropriate”.
As a response to Israeli strikes on Iran, the country launched around 100 drones towards Israel on Friday morning.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Israeli military reported all the drones were intercepted.
Who has been killed in the Israeli Strikes on Iran?
The IDF said the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Commander of the Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Commander of Iran’s Emergency Command “were all eliminated in the Israeli strikes across Iran”.
It said its overnight attack focused on “over 100 targets, including senior figures of the Iranian General Staff and leaders of the nuclear program.”
Iranian state media reported that those killed included Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the IRGC, Gholamali Rashid, the commander of Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, and the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri.
Six Nuclear Scientists Were Killed in the Israeli Strikes on Iran
IRGC-affiliated news agency Tasnim reported six nuclear scientists were also killed in the strikes, of whom five have been named:
- Fereydoon Abbasi, former head Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization
- Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi, who was involved in Iran’s nuclear weapons programme
- Abdulhamid Minouchehr, head of nuclear engineering at Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University
- Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor at Shahid Beheshti University
- Amirhossein Feqhi, another nuclear professor at Shahid Beheshti University
Ali Shamkhani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was also reported to have been seriously injured, according to Iranian reports.
State media reported civilians, including children, were also among those killed.
What is Iran’s nuclear programme?
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.
Several facilities have been targeted in the Israeli strikes on Iran.
This week, the watchdog’s board of governors formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.
It cited Iran’s “many failures” to provide full answers about undeclared nuclear material and Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
An earlier IAEA report said Iran had enriched uranium to 60% purity, enough near weapons grade uranium to make nine nuclear bombs.
Source: BBC
