BY OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
Israeli strikes have hit over 100 major targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities and missile sites, and killed top ranked military commanders and scientists, in what Tehran said was a “declaration of war”.
As Israeli officials stated the strikes were the first phase of a larger operation, Donald Trump described the attack as “excellent” and warned that further strikes would be more brutal unless Tehran agreed to back down over its nuclear programme, contradicting Washington’s official stance that the Israeli action was unilateral.
“There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,” the US president said in a social media post.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said late on Thursday that the US had not taken part in the Israeli attack, which he described as “unilateral”, but on Friday Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the US had been aware of the impending attack.
In another social media post, Trump implied a far deeper level of knowledge of coordination between the US and Israel than officials have thus far acknowledged, suggesting that Israel had attacked a day after a 60-day deadline he had given Iran to secure a deal had run out. He indicated vaguely that Iran might have a “second chance”.
With further steikes reported on Friday and fears that the Israeli attack could prompt a wider regional conflict and stoke tensions globally, Israel closed diplomatic missions and airlines diverted flights in the wider Middle East.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that at least 78 people had been killed and 329 injured in the attacks so far.
Israel’s attack drew widespread condemnation in the region, including from Saudi Arabia, and there were calls from western governments including the UK for de-escalation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced it was convening an emergency board meeting over the crisis, and it was unclear whether Iran would attend planned talks on its nuclear programme in Oman this weekend.
Among the locations hit was the Natanz nuclear facility, one of Iran’s key sites for uranium enrichment. The IAEA confirmed that the enrichment plant had been hit and added later that the Iranian authorities had not detected any increased radiation levels at the site.
As Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment” against Israel, the Israeli military said on Friday morning that Iran had launched 100 drones aimed at Israel and that its defences were focused on intercepting them.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the attack, which Israel is calling Rising Lion, was aimed at “rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival” and that it would take “many days”.
On Friday, Netanyahu said he had spoken with several world leaders and more calls were planned with Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Media organisations were briefed that Israeli secret service operatives had covertly smuggled drones into Iran to be used in the operation, publicity that may have been part of information warfare.
Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad, released grainy footage that it said showed agents on Iranian soil. Another video showed what the agency said was an attack on an Iranian defence system, while a third appeared to show an Iranian long-range missile being targeted.
Netanyahu said in a recorded televised address: “We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear weaponisation programme. We targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz. We targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile programme.”
Later, in comments that suggest the operation and Iranian retaliation could be long and difficult, Netanyahu said: “Israeli citizens may have to remain in sheltered areas for lengthy periods of time.”
In Iran on Friday, civilians described a night of terrifying explosions. Golnar, a resident of Saadat Abad, in northern Tehran, said she woke up to loud explosions just after 3am.
Ahmad Moadi, a 62-year-old retiree, said: “How much longer are we going to live in fear?. As an Iranian, I believe there must be an overwhelming response, a scathing response.”
Iranian state media said the head of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Gen Hossein Salami, the army chief of staff, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia joint forces headquarters, Maj Gen Gholamali Rashid, were killed in the strikes, as well as six nuclear scientists, including Fereydoun Abbasi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization from 2011 to 2013.
Israel said its assault had killed most of the senior leadership of the IRGC’s air force.
Iraq said on Friday more than 100 Iranian drones had crossed its airspace, and a short time later neighbouring Jordan said its air force and defence systems had intercepted several missiles and drones that had entered its airspace for fear they would fall in its territory.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 200 fighter jets took part in the attack and it issued a statement describing the operation as “a pre-emptive, precise, combined offensive to strike Iran’s nuclear programme”.
“Dozens of [Israeli air force] jets completed the first stage that included strikes on dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran,” the statement said.
Netanyahu said Iran had not only been building up its supply of fissile enriched uranium, with enough for nine warheads, but had also taken unprecedented steps towards building bombs.
The IAEA board ruled on Thursday that Iran was in violation of its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty for its failure to cooperate fully with IAEA inspections and for amassing an estimated 400kg of highly enriched uranium. Western intelligence assessments until now have generally said that while Iran is stockpiling the components of a bomb, it had not taken the final decision to build one.
