Israel’s military said it attacked military targets in Iran on Saturday night. Explosions rang out repeatedly in the Iranian capital. The Israeli attack was expected in recent days as Israel vowed to retaliate for a large-scale Iranian attack on Israel on October 1. Iran has declared that it will respond to the current attack. Explosions were also reported by Damascus at night, world agencies reported.
According to Iranian state television, at least six explosions were heard in Tehran in the first wave of the attack, and air defenses were also active. In the second wave, Iranian media reported four explosions in the eastern part of the metropolis, Reuters reported. According to the DPA agency, one of the explosions occurred right in the center of Tehran, witnesses spoke of a deafening blow.
In addition to Tehran, the explosions also rocked the city of Karaj in the western suburbs of the metropolis. The Iranian army said that military bases in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam in the west of the country were attacked. According to her, the attack was repelled and caused only “limited damage”. State media in Iran initially described the attack as harmless.
“Since (last) October 7, the Iranian regime and its intermediaries in the region have relentlessly attacked Israel – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian territory,” the AP quoted the Israeli military as saying. “Like any other sovereign country in the world, Israel has the right and the duty to respond,” the statement added.
The attack ended after hours before dawn, and the Israeli military said its planes “returned home safely”. The Kan public website said the strike involved three waves. One of the targets was a missile-making facility that Iran has fired at Israel in the past year, the military said, adding that Iranian air defenses were also hit.
US stations NBC and ABC, citing an unnamed Israeli official, said the Israeli strike did not target Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities and focused on military targets.
Iran closed its airspace early Saturday, followed by neighboring Iraq. According to rescue services, cited by the Iranian state news agency IRNA, the Israeli attacks did not claim any casualties in Tehran. The capital is currently struggling with internet outages, DPA wrote.
Explosions were also heard in the area of the Syrian capital Damascus on the night of Saturday, Syrian state media reported. According to the SANA agency, Israel attacked military bases in the central and southern parts of the country, while Syrian air defenses shot down some of the Israeli missiles. Israel regularly carries out strikes against targets in Syria linked to Iran, but has stepped up in recent months.
The United States was briefed by Israel before launching the strike against targets in Iran, a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. According to him, however, Washington was not involved in the Israeli operation. A senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration said the Israeli strike was appropriate and should mark the end of mutual attacks between the two countries.
On October 1 this year, Iran sent almost two hundred rockets to Israel in retaliation for the killing of the head of the Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah at the end of September by the Israeli army in Beirut and for the death of the leader of the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas Ismail Haniyeh at the end of July in Tehran, which is also attributed to Israel. One Palestinian died in the attack on Israel on October 1 in the occupied West Bank, most of the rockets were deflected by Israeli air defense.
It was Tehran’s second attack on Israel from Iranian territory, the first one took place this year in mid-April, when Iran sent over three hundred missiles and attack drones at Israel, most of which were intercepted by Israeli air defenses. At that time, it was a retaliation for the Israeli strike on the consulate in Damascus, in which seven officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards died on April 1.
Iranian officials have repeatedly warned Israel of a retaliatory attack. According to the Tasnim agency, they have now reserved the right to respond to any “aggression” and said there is no doubt that Israel will face an adequate response to its actions.
In recent weeks, Israel has stepped up its offensive against militants from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its Iran-backed ally in Lebanon, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The war in the Middle East was triggered more than a year ago by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
