Israel has launched a series of missile strikes on Iran, a week after the Islamic Republic fired hundreds of missile and drone strikes on Israel. Iran’s strike a week ago itself was in response to an Israeli raid on the Iranian consulate in Syria.
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Multiple news outlets report that the Israeli strike happened in the early hours of Friday.
BBC reported that US officials have confirmed to the BBC’s partner CBS News that an Israeli missile hit Iran in the early hours of Friday.
It is unclear what type of weapons were used or where they were launched from. US sources said a missile was involved in the attack, while Iran said it had involved small drones.
Iranian news agency Mehr reported that several explosions were heard around 4 am local time in the skies over the central city of Isfahan.
Isfahan province is a large area in the centre of Iran which takes its name from its largest city.
The region is home to significant Iranian military infrastructure, including a large airbase, a major missile production complex and several nuclear facilities.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolution Guard Corps military wing, posted a video of a nuclear facility in Isfahan which did not show any signs it had been hit.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed there has been no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites. CNN cited an unnamed US official as saying that nuclear sites were not targeted.
As it normally does, Israel did not comment on the purported strike. The Israeli army told AFP: “we don’t have a comment at this time” when asked about reports of strikes in Iran and Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office refused to confirm to the Times of Israel that Israel was responsible for the explosions heard in Isfahan.
IRNA news agency said that air defenses have been activated in several parts of Iran, and that Israel also struck military airfields and a radar site in Syria and Iraq.
The Syrian Defense Ministry has confirmed the Israeli strike, saying that it occurred at around 3am local time and targeted air defense installations in the south of the country. The attack resulted in “material damage,” the ministry said, without providing further details.
Israel would usually tell the US in advance about military action, but Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani told reporters at the G7 meeting in Capri that Washington was “informed at the very last minute”.
Speaking at the summit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken refused to be drawn on the attack, saying only that the US had “not been involved in any offensive operations”.
According to Al Jazeera, Iran has suspended flights at several airports, including Tehran and Isfahan.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
