Israel’s military has confirmed it is “conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran” but is not targeting the Middle Eastern nation’s nuclear or oil facilities.
Iranian state media reported sounds of explosions near the capital, but there has been no immediate information on damage or casualties.
The Israel Defence Force confirmed it had launched airstrikes on military targets in Iran on Saturday morning, officials said.
Two Israeli officials have confirmed that IDF airstrikes against Iran are not targeting nuclear or oil facilities.
It was not immediately clear what the targets were.
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Iranian state media reported the sound of explosions around the capital Tehran without immediately elaborating.
An Israeli military statement said that Israel “has the right and the duty to respond.”
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7 – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the statement read.
It also did not elaborate on the targets.
Iranian state television later identified some of the blasts as coming from air defence systems, without offering more details.
International flights began diverting around western Iran as news of the strikes broke, flight-tracking data has shown. An advisory to pilots said Iran had closed the country’s airspace.
Screenshot of Flight Radar showing closed airspace around Iran in the wake of Israel’s latest assault on the Middle East (Flight Radar/PA).
In Tehran, the Iranian capital, the sound of explosions could be heard, with state-run media saying some of the sounds came from air defence systems around the city.
A Tehran resident told The Associated Press that at least seven explosions could be heard, which rattled the surrounding area. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
In Syria, the state news agency SANA citing an unnamed military official, reported “barrages of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan and Lebanese territories targeted some military sites in the southern and central regions” early on Saturday.
It said that Syria’s air defences had shot some of the missiles down.
There was no immediate information on casualties.
The strike happened just as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was arriving back in the US after a tour of the Middle East where he and other US officials had warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and exclude nuclear sites in Iran.
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement that “we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran” and referred reporters to the Israeli government for more details on their operation.
Two US officials said the US was notified by Israel in advance of the strikes, with the sources both speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation.
They said there was no US involvement in the operation.
Israel had vowed to hit Iran hard following a massive Iranian missile barrage on October 1.
Smoke and fire rise from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon on Friday Hassan Ammar/AP)
Iran said its barrage was in response to deadly Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon and it has promised to respond to any retaliatory strikes.
Israel and Iran have been bitter foes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat, citing its leaders’ calls for Israel’s destruction, their support for anti-Israel militant groups and the country’s nuclear programme.
Israel and Iran have been locked in a years-long shadow war. A suspected Israeli assassination campaign has killed top Iranian nuclear scientists. Iranian nuclear installations have been hacked or sabotaged, all in mysterious attacks blamed on Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks on shipping in the Middle East in recent years, which later grew into the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping through the Red Sea corridor.
But since Hamas’ October 7 attack, the battle has increasingly moved into the open. Israel has recently turned its attention to Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began.
In the time since, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials who don’t delineate between civilians and combatants. Israeli military operations in the West Bank in the time since have killed hundreds more.
Throughout the year, a number of top Iranian military figures have been killed in Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon.
Iran fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel last April after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria on an Iranian diplomatic post.
The missiles and drones caused minimum damage, and Israel — under pressure from Western countries to show restraint — responded with a limited strike.
But after Iran’s early October missile strike, Israel promised a tougher response.