Israel and the United States launched a daylight missile attack on Iran on Saturday morning, following weeks of knife-edge tensions building up between Donald Trump and the Ayatollah.
Israel Katz, the Israeli Defense Minister, announced that the country is under a state of emergency as thick smoke rose from an explosion in downtown Tehran.
Iranian state media reported explosions going off in their capital city. The apparent strike happened near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It is not immediately clear whether Khamenei, 86, had been in his offices at the time.
The Iranian leader has not been seen publicly in days, all while the US assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.
The IDF launched the surprise ‘preemptive’ attack in coordination with the US, according to Israeli and American officials. Katz said the attack was ‘to remove threats.’
Israel warned its own citizens to prepare to take cover if the Iranians fight back, with sirens already being heard across Israel.
The country’s Defense Force said: ‘This is a proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the State of Israel.’
Airspace above Israel was closed to civilian flights following the strike this morning.
More explosions struck Iran’s capital after Israel said it was attacking the country. Authorities have offered no casualty information from the strikes.
The explosions come as tensions are high between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program.
This week Trump made the grave warning that Iran is manufacturing weapons that could soon strike US.
Tehran is ‘working on missiles that will soon reach’ America, Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. He also vowed to prevent Iran, the ‘number one sponsor of terrorism,’ from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Trump has openly flirted with regime change too, telling reporters recently that the ousting of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ‘would be the best thing that could happen.’
But US intelligence reports have not yet concluded that Iran is capable of crafting a weapon capable of reaching the homeland.
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessed last year that Iran could need until 2035 to create a ‘militarily viable’ intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – the kind that travels thousands of miles, including, for a time, through space before the warhead plummets towards its target.
‘Iran has space launch vehicles it could use to develop a militarily-viable ICBM by 2035 should Tehran decide to pursue the capability,’ the DIA report states.
Two aircraft carrier strike groups – representing around 15,000 soldiers, over a dozen ships, hundreds of planes and likely some submarines – are being used by Trump to get Iran to capitulate to his denuclearization demands.
In addition, many thousands of troops and scores of military assets are on bases throughout the region, though there are some reports of evacuations.
The stalemate has recently shown some signs of traction with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, with chief Iran negotiator Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister.
Additional meetings were scheduled for Friday.
The heated tensions this year come just months after Operation Midnight Hammer – one of the most sophisticated military aviation successes in recent American history.
Last June, Trump’s B-2 Stealth Bombers were flown to Iran in a 37-hour secret mission to quell the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear capabilities.
Two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles hit Iran in the operation.
Their purpose was to neutralize Iranian defense systems protecting nuclear enrichment facilities at Isfahan. When these sites had been destroyed, the B-2 group entered Iranian airspace.
The stealth jet squadron slipped into enemy skies, moving into attack formation at ‘high altitude and high speed’, with lighter, more mobile F-22 fighter jets sweeping in front of the B-2s to shield them from any surface-to-air or air-to-air fire.
There was none. Not a single shot was fired at any of the aircraft or warships involved in Midnight Hammer from the beginning of the operation to its end.
This is a breaking news story.
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US, Israel launch attack on Iran after regime refuses to scrap nuclear program: report
The US and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran Saturday morning in response to the regime’s refusal to dismantle its nuclear program after weeks of negotiations.
The attacks follow a massive US military buildup in the Middle East and come after President Trump repeatedly warned Tehran that it would face consequences if it didn’t make a deal with the US.
The New York Times, citing a US official, reported that US strikes on Iran were underway.
A source told Reuters that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was not in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location.
The full extent of the American assault on Iran remains unclear.
Trump had reportedly been weighing options ranging from a limited strike to pressure Iran into a deal to a military campaign aimed at killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba, who is viewed as a possible successor.
The president had given the Iranian officials a 10-15 day deadline to reach an agreement on a nuclear deal on Feb. 19, asserting the regime would face “really bad things” if it didn’t.
The warning came after days of indirect negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, between US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The discussions were mediated by Oman.
Trump has long insisted that he would not accept a deal that would allow Iran to continue to enrich uranium, fearing the regime would use it to build a nuclear weapon.
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Israel, US launch attack on Iran, blasts heard in Tehran as Khamenei moved to ‘secure location’
The IDF launched a surprise attack on Iran on Saturday morning, with Iranian state media reporting explosions have been heard in Tehran.
At the time of the attack, the IDF sent a national warning to all citizens to stay near protected spaces.
“This is a proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
A security source confirmed to Walla that the United States is involved in the strikes.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a “secure location,” an Iranian official confirmed to Reuters.
Iranian media reported strikes targeting the IRGC Intelligence Directorate, as well as hits in central Tehran. The country has closed its airspace in response to the strikes.
An Israeli security official tells Reuters that the operation was planned for months and its timing was set several weeks ago.
Sources in the defense establishment stated one of the objectives of the strikes will be to “remove threats to the Israeli home front, with an emphasis on missile launchers and unmanned aerial vehicle bases.”
Currently, no missiles have been launched towards Israel, but security officials assess that an Iranian response could occur within several hours.
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