JERUSALEM/DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israel launched large-scale strikes against Iran on Friday, saying it had attacked nuclear facilities and missile factories and killed a swathe of military commanders in what could be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran building an atomic weapon.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Iran had brought the attack on itself by resisting U.S. demands in talks to restrict its nuclear program, and urged it to make a deal, “with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal”.
Washington said it had no part in the operation, however.
Iran promised a harsh response to a barrage that killed the heads of both its armed forces and the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and Israel said it was trying to intercept about 100 drones launched towards Israeli territory in retaliation.
But around 0800 GMT, Israeli media said an order to citizens to remain near protected areas had been lifted, suggesting that most or all of the drones had been neutralized.
The price of crude leapt around 9% on fears of wider retaliatory attacks across a major oil-producing region. [O/R]
An Israeli security source said Mossad commandos had been operating deep inside the Islamic Republic before the attack and the Israeli spy agency and military had mounted a series of covert operations against Iran’s strategic missile array.
Israel also established an attack-drone base near Tehran, the source added. The military said it had carried out a large-scale strike against Iran’s air defenses, destroying “dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers”.
Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions, including some at the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said Natanz had sustained damage but no casualties had been reported.
Iran said several top commanders and six nuclear scientists had been killed, including the armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami. Two sources in the region said at least 20 senior commanders were dead, including the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force.
An Israeli military official said the strikes had achieved a great deal but assessments were continuing and Israel was prepared to keep the operation going for days. Among the targets were ballistic missiles pointed towards Israel, they added.
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.
Just before 6 a.m. Washington time, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” he said.
“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. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left…”
ISRAEL’S ENEMIES IN LEBANON AND GAZA WEAKENED
At one time, Israel might have expected a wave of retaliation from Iranian-backed militias around the region.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had “unleashed its wicked and bloody” hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive “a bitter fate for itself”.
But since the war in Gaza erupted in October 2023, Israel has severely weakened Iran’s allies, notably by assassinating the top leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah and attacking the Houthis who control much of Yemen.
Some 200 Israeli fighter jets took part in the strikes, hitting more than 100 targets in Iran, military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said. Iran’s Fars news agency reported a strike near the northwestern city of Tabriz.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no increase in radiation levels at the Natanz nuclear site, citing information provided by Iranian authorities.
Airlines quit the airspace over Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan after the Israeli strikes, Flightradar24 data showed, with carriers diverting or cancelling flights.
Israeli airlines El Al, Israir and Arkia said they were moving their planes out of Israel and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was shut.
Dubai-based Emirates cancelled flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran as Iran closed its airspace.
The global crude oil benchmark Brent blend was up almost 9% at $75.37 at 1000 GMT. [O/R]
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said oil refining and storage facilities had not been damaged and continued to operate.
Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said tens of thousands of soldiers had been called up and “prepared across all borders”.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi joined global calls for de-escalation and accused Israel of violating international law.
“At an extremely critical time when the U.S. was negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran that would save the whole region and the world, a new vicious escalation,” he said on X.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said any new deal – to replace a 2015 accord between Tehran and six world powers from which Trump withdrew – must include a commitment to scrap uranium enrichment, a prerequisite for developing nuclear bombs.
NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN DUE ON SUNDAY
The Islamic Republic insists it wants nuclear energy only for civilian purposes.
But the IAEA’s Board of Governors on Thursday declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
Iran is a signatory to the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel is not, and is believed to have the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal.
Iran said in a statement that Israel’s “cowardly” attack showed why Iran had to insist on enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power.
Iranian citizens reacted to the strikes with anger and fear.
Some opponents of the ruling clerics expressed hope that Israel’s attack might lead to their downfall, though one Tehran resident who was not a supporter of clerical rule said Iran must retaliate.
“We can’t afford not to respond. Either we surrender and they take our missiles, or we fire them. There’s no other option — and if we don’t, we’ll end up surrendering them anyway.”
The Israeli military said it had been forced to act by new intelligence information showing that Iran was “approaching the point of no return” in the development of a nuclear weapon.
But a source familiar with U.S. intelligence reports said there had been no recent change in the U.S. assessment that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei had not authorized a resumption of the nuclear weapons program that was shut in 2003.
Trump was convening the National Security Council on Friday morning, the White House said. He had said on Thursday that an Israeli strike on Iran “could very well happen” but reiterated his hopes for a peaceful resolution.
Iran’s armed forces spokesperson accused Washington of providing support for the operation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. had not been involved in the strikes and Israel had acted unilaterally in self-defense.
U.S. and Iranian officials are scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s escalating uranium enrichment program in Oman on Sunday.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Stephen Coates and Michael Georgy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Kevin Liffey)
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