In a stubbon resolve to push the world to the brink, Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran despite warnings from its biggest backer, the United States of America.
A US official told CNN Friday described the Israeli latest attack on Teheran as a potentially dangerous escalation in a fast widening Middle East conflict that Iranian government officials have so far sought to play down.
The US was given advance notification Thursday of an intended Israeli strike in the coming days, but did not endorse the response, a second senior US official said.
Iran’s air defense systems were activated in several locations after three explosions were heard close to a major military airbase near the Iranian city of Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning.
Iranian officials said air defenses intercepted three drones and there were no reports of a missile attack.
Iran has not directly blamed any one for the attack.
Multiple state-aligned news agencies reported that sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program were “completely secure” and the attack appeared to be limited in scope.
Senior military commander, Second Brigadier General Mihandoust, told the state-aligned Tasnim news agency there was “no damage” and the noises heard overnight were due to air defense systems targeting a “suspicious object.”
Iranian media appeared to further minimize the scale of the attack later Friday, broadcasting calm scenes from Isfahan showing residents walking through parks and visiting landmarks. Traffic was reported as normal and the airport was also reported to have reopened after flights were briefly canceled or suspended early Friday.
Reports of Friday’s strike came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN that if Israel takes any further military action against Iran, its response would be “immediate and at a maximum level.”
“If the Israeli regime commits the grave error once again our response will be decisive, definitive and regretful for them,” he added, noting that this warning had been communicated to the White House via the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.
Tensions across the Middle East remain on a knife edge, following Iran’s unprecedented direct strike against Israel late Saturday. The attack, during which Iran launched more than 300 drones and cruise missiles toward Israel, came in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 1 April, which killed a top commander, and several others.
Separately, “material losses” were reported in southern Syria after an Israeli strike, targeted “our air defense sites in the southern region,” Syrian state media SANA reported Friday citing a military source. The Israeli military said that it does not comment on reports in foreign media.
The Israeli military said it was unable to provide a comment on Friday, when asked by CNN about reports of explosions in Iran.
Israel’s action in Iran is the latest escalatory move in a region that has been rocked by Israel’s devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack. That attack killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.
Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, caused widespread destruction of the enclave and sparked a humanitarian crisis where more than 1 million people face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger.
Reported by CNN
