Sunday, 22 December 2024
Sunday, 22 December 2024
Israel’s military said on Saturday that its warplanes had returned safely after striking military targets in Iran.
Israel said it launched attacks targeting missile manufacturing plants and other sites in the country. These targets included missile manufacturing facilities used by Iran in its attacks on Israel over the past year, the Israeli military said.
It added that it also “struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel's aerial freedom of operation in Iran”.
Israel offered no damage assessment.
Iran's military said that the Israeli strikes on the country targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, causing “limited damage”.
The statement from Iran's armed forces was read aloud on state television, which showed no images of the damage described. Iran's military claimed its air defences limited the damage done by the strikes, without providing additional evidence.
Israel's strikes on military sites in Iran appear to have been a targeted and proportional response to Tehran's earlier attacks, with low risk of civilian harm, a senior Biden administration official said.
This should be the end of direct exchange of fire between the two countries, the official said, adding that the U.S. has multiple direct and indirect channels of communication with Iran where it has made its position clear.
A Tehran resident told The Associated Press that at least seven explosions could be heard in the first wave of attacks, which rattled the surrounding area.
As explosions sounded, people in Tehran could see what appeared to be tracer fire light up the sky. Other footage showed what appeared to be surface-to-air missiles being launched.
Iran closed the country's airspace early Saturday, and flight-tracking data analyzed by AP showed commercial airlines had broadly left the skies over Iran, and across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
The attack risks pushing the archenemies closer to all-out war at a time of spiraling violence across the Middle East, where militant groups backed by Iran — including Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon — are already at war with Israel.
It also marks the first time Israel's military has openly attacked Iran, which hasn't faced a sustained barrage of fire from a foreign enemy since its 1980s war with Iraq.
