The Israeli authorities stated dozens of fighter jets took half within the first stage of a wider operation that focused Iran’s foremost uranium enrichment facility, ballistic missile websites and senior navy officers. Israel’s Mossad intelligence service additionally carried out sabotage operations in opposition to air protection programs and missile batteries, Axios reported.
Iranian state media reported that senior navy leaders and nuclear scientists have been killed within the operation early Friday native time, together with the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami.
Even earlier than the airstrikes, Israel had demonstrated its skill to function with close to impunity in Iran over the previous yr, concentrating on senior figures for assassination and bombing essential air protection programs with out dropping plane.
Israeli strikes in October and April 2024 hit key S-300 air protection networks in Iran and tools used to make stable gasoline for ballistic missiles.
Iran suffered severe harm to its air defenses in earlier airstrikes, and shoring up these programs was not one thing that may very well be achieved rapidly, in line with Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage.
“It’s a giant nation with plenty of targets to guard in opposition to a really superior opponent,” Knights stated. “They simply don’t have ok air defenses to maintain the Israelis out, clearly.”
Though Israel more than likely may inflict severe harm on Iran’s nuclear program, it lacks the heavy bombs and plane required to strike successfully at Iran’s buried nuclear websites, navy consultants and former U.S. and Israeli officers say.
