Tehran, June 13: Israel launched a massive aerial assault on Iran early Friday, targeting the country’s nuclear program and killing several top military commanders and several nuclear scientists. This is the most significant attack on Iran since the 1980s Iraqi invasion, raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries.
Explosions rocked the Iranian capital as state media confirmed civilian casualties, including children, and reported deaths of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders and at least five nuclear scientists.
Israeli state said it targeted Iran’s nuclear program and the attacks will continue “for as many days as it takes to remove this threat” from the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s state television confirmed the attack, saying strikes on residential buildings in the capital killed several civilians, including children.
Taslim News reported head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) was among other top military commanders and nuclear scientists targeted in the air strikes.
The report on air added that IRGC commander Hossain Salamis, as well as two nuclear scientists, were also feared killed.
Israeli Premier Netanyahu declared in Jerusalem that the military campaign will continue for “as many days as it takes”, raising fears of all-out war.
The strikes are certain to trigger a reprisal, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei warning that “severe punishment” would be directed at the Zionist state.
IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami was martyred in the Israeli attack early on Friday, reported Press TV.
Several other senior IRGC commanders and nuclear scientists are also among the dead in the large-scale Israeli attack in Tehran and other provinces across the country.
Veteran nuclear scientists Fereydoon Abbasi and Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi have also been martyred in the attack, Press TV reported.
In Washington, the Trump administration said that Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” and that it had informed the US ahead of the attack but warned Iran against retaliations.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” and that Israel advised the U.S. that it believed the strikes were necessary for its self-defense.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement released by the White House that warned Iran against targeting U.S. interests or personnel.
Israel launched an attack a day after the US Embassy in Israel issued a security alert restricting the movement of its employees and their family members in the country, amid escalating tensions in the region.
Earlier, President Trump said US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because “it could be a dangerous place,” as tensions with Iran rise.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz signed a special order declaring an emergency situation on the home front.
“In the wake of the state of Israel’s preventive attack against Iran, missile and drone attacks against Israel and its civilian population are expected immediately,” he said in a statement.
“It is essential to listen to instructions from the home front command and authorities to stay in protected areas,” it said.
For Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel’s ongoing and increasingly unpopular war in Gaza, which is now over 20 months old. There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat, and Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, offered his “full support” for the mission against Iran.
But analysts say if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli casualties or major disruptions to daily life, Netanyahu could see public opinion quickly shift.
Iranian airspace is now closed. Flights inside Iran and completing their transit or diverting out. Flights planned to pass over Iran are holding or diverting.
Dozens of commercial airliners were in Iranian airspace as the strikes took place, according to flight tracking websites.
More than an hour after the Israeli attack, some were still making their way out of Iranian airspace, but some abruptly altered course to more quickly exit the area.
The strike on Iran pushed the Israeli military to its limits, requiring the use of aging air-to-air refuelers to get its fighter jets close enough to attack. It wasn’t immediately clear if Israeli jets entered Iranian airspace or just fired so-called “standoff missiles” over another country. People in Iraq heard fighter jets overhead at the time of the attack. Israel previously attacked Iran from over the border in Iraq.