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.
Iran’s Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri was “likely eliminated”, said an Israeli security official.
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”.
Oil prices surged as much as eight per cent while stocks sank on the Israeli strikes, which came after Trump’s warning. The US president has also said the US was drawing down staff in the region.
“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.
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.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran not to respond to Israeli strikes by hitting US bases, saying Washington was not involved.
“Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel,” Rubio said in a statement.
‘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 hit 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.
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.
