Israel attacks Iran, targets nuclear and military facilities

 

Israel has attacked Iran, targeting the country's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories, and military personnel at the start of what it said was a prolonged military engagement carried out under the pretext of preventing Tehran from building an atomic weapon.

The Israeli attack on Friday occurred despite Iran's long-standing insistence that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful civilian purposes. Tehran and the meanwhile vowed retaliation.

The IRGC has vowed retaliation following Israel's attacks on Iran, which resulted in the death of IRGC Chief Major General Hossein Salami.

In a statement, the IRGC praised Salami as a distinguished leader who dedicated his life to defending the revolution.

The Corps, alongside other armed forces, is prepared to respond decisively to Israel's aggression. The IRGC assured that plans for retaliation are in place and promised to share further details with the nation.

Key developments so far:

       - Israel's attacks Iran’s nuclear and military sites

       - Iran's top military officials were killed

       - Israel claims to have intercepted Iranian drones

       - Six nuclear scientists, several civilians were killed

       - US denies involvement

       - Israeli military on high alert for retaliation

       - World leaders call for restraint

       - Flights disrupted after Israeli attack on Iran

Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions, including at the country's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of any retaliation.

Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami was assassinated in the attack, IRNA reported. The unit's headquarters in Tehran had been hit.

At least 50 people injured in the Israeli attack have been taken to Chamran Hospital in Tehran’s Tajrish district, with 35 of the injured being women and children, Tasnim news agency reported.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had "unleashed its wicked and bloody hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive "a bitter fate for itself".

Alongside extensive air strikes, Israel's Mossad spy agency led a series of covert sabotage operations inside Iran, Axios reported, citing a senior Israeli official. These operations were aimed at damaging Iran’s strategic missile sites and its air defence capabilities.

Iranian state media reported that at least six nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, were killed in Israeli strikes in Tehran.

However, the Iranian nuclear agency has stated that the Israeli attacks on the nuclear facilities, saying that no one was killed at the site that was hit.

In a statement on Friday after the Israeli regime's airstrikes, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) confirmed that damages were inflicted on parts of various complexes in the attack on the Shahid Ahmadi Roshan enrichment complex.