Sabti 26-Octo-2024 {HMC} Israel says it has completed a major assault on Iran after more than a year of fighting, which began with an attack by Iranian proxy group Hamas on the Jewish state and has grown into a multi-front conflict directly involving Tehran and its other regional proxies.
In a statement issued early Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said its warplanes safely returned home after conducting “precise and targeted strikes against military targets in a number of areas in Iran.” It issued the statement about four hours after the first reports emerged of explosions in Iran around 2:30 a.m. Tehran time.
“Based on intelligence, Israel air force aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at Israel over the last year,” the IDF said. “These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of Israel. Simultaneously, the IDF struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.”
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that the Israeli airstrikes achieved their objectives but did not immediately provide evidence.
Iranian state news site IRNA quoted the nation’s air defense organization as saying Israel attacked military centers in Tehran and in the western provinces of Khuzestan and Ilam. It said Iranian forces “successfully” intercepted much of the strikes, ensuring they caused only “limited damage.”
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref was the only senior official to make a public comment about the Israeli attacks early Saturday. He posted a flag of the Islamic Republic on X and wrote: “Iran’s power humiliates the enemies of the motherland.”
Iranian authorities did not provide evidence of interceptions of Israeli airstrikes or damage. But state media cited the Iranian army as saying two soldiers were killed in the Israeli attack.
A senior U.S. administration official told reporters that Israel carried out “precision airstrikes against multiple military targets across Iran and outside populated areas.”
Source VOA NEWS
