Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran, six days after Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory last weekend.
According to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/18/middleeast/isfahan-iran-explosion-intl-hnk/index.html">CNN</a>, a United States official said they were given advance notification Thursday of an intended Israeli strike in the coming days, but did not endorse the response.
Citing Iranian State media, the report says three explosions were heard close to a major military airbase near the Iranian city of Isfahan, prompting the activation of Iran’s air defence systems in several locations.
According to BBC, Isfahan province is home to a large airbase, a major missile production complex and several nuclear facilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said no nuclear sites were damaged
Iranian officials said air defenses intercepted three drones and there were no reports of a missile attack. Iran has, however, not identified the source of the strike.
Reports of Friday’s strike came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN that Iran’s response would be “immediate and at a maximum level” if Israel takes any further military action against Iran. He said:
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If the Israeli regime commits the grave error once again our response will be decisive, definitive and regretful for them.
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He said this warning had been communicated to the White House via the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.
Following the reported Israeli strike inside Iran, various state-aligned news agencies reported that sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program were “completely secure”.
Senior military commander, Second Brigadier General Mihandoust, told the state-aligned Tasnim news agency there was “no damage”, adding that the noises heard overnight were due to air defence systems targeting a “suspicious object.”
The Israeli military said it was unable to provide a comment on Friday when asked by CNN about reports of explosions in Iran.
A senior Iranian official tells Reuters news agency “Iran has no plan for immediate retaliation against Israel,” hours after the attack by Israel.
On Friday morning, an Iranian analyst told Iranian state TV that “Mini drones shot down by air defences in Isfahan were flown by infiltrators from inside Iran”, downplaying the reports that Israel had carried out the attack.
The Middle East has been on edge following Iran’s unprecedented direct strike against Israel late Saturday.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and cruise missiles toward Israel after 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.
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Israeli Missile Strikes Inside Iran, US Officials Say

Israel’s allies have reportedly urged it to avoid any escalation, as it considers a response to Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack over the weekend.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel on Sunday, in what it said was retaliation for a strike on its consulate in Syria which killed seven people including two military generals.
Israel says during the assault, Iran tried to attack strategically important infrastructure including the Nevatim air force base – where it keeps its stealth fighter jets – but that it failed to have an impact.
BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Yolande Knell, reported that Israel’s military is said to have presented a range of options to the war cabinet for potential strikes against Iran.
An Israeli source was cited as saying the Israeli government cannot allow such a large attack launched directly from Iran for the first time – to pass without some kind of response.
Some Israeli politicians argue that a powerful message needs to be sent so that Iran doesn’t repeat its actions.
However, key figures in the war cabinet have also been stressing the opportunity to strengthen the “strategic alliance” between Israel and the US, the UK, Jordan and other allies against the threat from Iran.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, called for calm, while President Emmanuel Macron said France will do everything possible to avoid a regional conflict.
The UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron told the BBC that Iran suffered a “double defeat” after its attack on Israel failed and it showed its true nature to the world.
Russia, a close ally of Iran, also warned that further escalation is “in no one’s interests”, as China’s foreign ministry also called for calm.
UN general secretary Antonio Guterres said the “Middle East is on the brink” and it was time to “defuse and de-escalate”.
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Western Allies Urge Israel To Avoid Escalation After Iran Attack

Iran directly attacked Israel for the first time on Sunday morning, in what is the largest ever drone strike in the world, and its biggest missile attack ever.
As reported by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/14/true-promise-why-and-how-did-iran-launch-a-historic-attack-on-israel">Al Jazeera</a>, Iran used hundreds of drones and missiles to directly target Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, two weeks ago.
An Israeli air strike flattened the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed two commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and five other people.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force of the IRGC and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi were killed in the Israeli attack.
The two generals were in charge of leading operations in Syria and Lebanon.
Iran’s attack on Israel on Sunday was the single largest drone attack ever carried out by any country, and it was the first time Iran directly attacked Israel.
Operation “True Promise” was mainly aimed at strengthening Iran’s deterrence, which critics said had been compromised after increasingly confrontational policies and military strikes by the United States and its allies across the region, reported Al Jazeera.
The attack, despite briefly shifting the world’s attention from the deaths of tens of thousands of women and children in the Gaza Strip, could translate into soft power gains for Iran in the Muslim world in the long run, when compared with other regional powers.
Iran would also justify its actions at the United Nations Security Council since attacks on diplomatic missions signal a violation of the Vienna Convention.
Furthermore, Article 51 of the UN Charter enshrines the “inherent right” of self-defence, something Israel has been heavily leaning on since the start of the Gaza war.
As of Sunday, Iran had not officially confirmed the exact number of drones or ballistic and cruise missiles it used to attack Israel, but the Israeli military said more than 300 were launched.
As reported by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/14/how-irans-attack-on-israel-was-stopped">Guardian</a>, Israel’s military said all 170 drones launched from Iran, likely to be from its Shahed family, were shot down before they reached Israeli airspace.
The drones are not much threat, able only to carry a modest bomb of up to 50kg, but they intend to tie up defenders.
Videos of the craft circulated on social media hours before being shot down, gave those responding plenty of time to react.
The drones’ noisy engines suggested they were the slow-flying Shahed-136, which would take six hours to fly from Iran to Israel.
However, some Israeli media reported Iran had launched the faster jet-engined Shahed 238, which travels three times more quickly.
The spokesperson of Isreal’s military, Daniel Hagari, said Iran also launched 30 cruise missiles towards its territory, with IDF jets intercepting 25 “outside the country’s borders”.
The missiles are most probably the newly designed Paveh-351, designed to be manoeuvrable in flight but still take two hours from Iran.
More than 120 high-speed ballistic missiles, capable of flying several times the speed of sound and making the journey from Iran to Israel (about 600 miles at the closest points) in less than 15 minutes, were launched at Israel.
Hagari said that “a few” crossed into Israel’s airspace, some striking at the Nevatim airbase.
Israel’s air defence system’s Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, manufactured in an Israeli-US collaboration, supported by David’s Sling, a medium-range interceptor, were deployed to hit the Iranian ballistic missiles.
The United States said it had knocked out about 70 drones and three missiles. The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, added that the British airforce had intercepted an unspecified number. Jordan, a longstanding US ally, reportedly shot down dozens more drones over its airspace that Iran had launched towards Israel.
Brig Gen Reem Aminoach, a former financial adviser to the IDF chief of staff, told Israel’s Ynet News that an Arrow missile typically costs $3.5m (£2.8m) a time, and David’s Sling interceptors $1m (£800,000).
He estimated that adding up the cost of eliminating 100 ballistic missiles, plus the costs of the whole air defence campaign, is “an order of magnitude of 4 to 5 billion shekels (£850m to £1.1bn)”.
However, the attack was also expensive for Iran, with ballistic missiles generally costing upwards of £80,000.
Following the attack, the Rial, Iran’s falling national currency, dropped to a new all-time low of about 670,000 per US dollar on Sunday before regaining some ground.
Iran’s chief of general staff, Gen Mohammad Bagheri, said on Sunday that the operation was considered a success and further attacks on its part were not necessary.
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