Al Jazeera reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli military has carried out several strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and military sites in and around the country’s capital, Tehran.
In a prerecorded video message posted early Friday morning, Netanyahu said the strikes were aimed at hurting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and ballistic missile factories.
“This operation will take as long as is needed to complete the task of fending off the threat of annihilation against us,” Netanyahu said.
An unnamed Israeli military official told the Reuters news agency that Israel struck “dozens” of nuclear and military targets early on Friday.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Iranian regime suffered an unprecedented blow in the early hours of Friday morning. Key figures in its military leadership, including in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have been reported killed.
The Times of Israel cited Israeli minister for military affairs Israel Katz as saying that the regime was conducting strikes on Iran. Katz simultaneously declared a state of emergency across Israel.
Al-Jazeera notes that Israel’s Chief of staff Eyal Zamir said the military launched it attacks on Iran as Israel had reached a “point of no return”.
Describing the early morning strikes on Iran as a “fight to preserve our existence”, Zamir reportedly said the military launched the attacks as it could not “wait for another moment to act”.
Meanwhile, Iranian media reports say the Israeli regime has carried out strikes in and near the Iranian capital, Tehran, as well as other cities in Iran.
The strikes reportedly took place overnight on Friday, as unconfirmed images and footage began to appear on social media of Tehran’s skyline, with plumes of smoke seen rising to the sky on several locations.
IRNA says images showed damaged residential buildings in several locations in the capital.
Eyewitnesses and reporters from the state TV said they saw the bodies of women and children among the victims.
In recent days, and as reports emerged in U.S. and Israeli media about imminent strikes against Iran, Iranian officials warned that any aggression against Iranian territory would have devastating consequences, IRNA reports, noting that the United States earlier began an evacuation of its non-essential embassy staff and their families from the region, as U.S. intelligence indicated that Israel was planning to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a statement later on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel had taken “unilateral” action against Iran and that the United States had not been involved.
Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major-General Hossein Salami was assassinated in one of the Israeli strikes.
Several explosions also took place at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant in Bushehr, according to IRNA.
Iranian state-run news agency, Nour News, said several “loud explosions” have been reported in and around Iran’s capital. It added that Iran’s air defense system is on full alert, and all flights at Imam Khomeini international airport have been suspended.
Iranian state-run media outlet Press TV confirmed that there have been several casualties, without providing a number.
