Israel strikes military targets in Iran – Irvine Times

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that they carried out airstrikes on military targets in Iran on Saturday morning, officials said.

It is not yet clear what the targets were.

Iranian state media reported the sound of explosions around the capital Tehran, without immediately giving details.

An Israeli military statement said Israel “has the right and obligation to respond.”

“The regime in Iran and its supporters in the region have relentlessly attacked Israel since October 7 – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the statement said.

It also does not give details about the targets.

Iranian state television later identified some of the blasts as coming from air defense systems, without offering further details.

International flights began to be diverted around western Iran after news of the strikes broke, flight tracking data showed. An advisory to pilots said Iran had closed the country’s airspace.

The sound of explosions could be heard in Tehran, the Iranian capital, with state media saying some of the sounds came from air defense systems around the city.

A resident of Tehran told The Associated Press that at least seven explosions were heard that shook the surrounding area. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In Syria, state news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said “barrages of rockets from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan and Lebanese territories targeted some military sites in the southern and central regions” early Saturday.

It said Syria’s air defenses shot down some of the missiles.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The strike came just as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was arriving in the US after a tour of the Middle East, where he and other US officials had warned Israel to offer a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and shut down Iran’s nuclear sites.

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savet 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 U.S. officials said the U.S. 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 has vowed to hit Iran hard after Iran’s massive rocket fire on October 1.

Iran said its barrage was in response to deadly Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and vowed to respond to any retaliatory strikes.

Israel and Iran have been enemies since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Israel views Iran as its biggest threat, citing its leaders’ calls for the destruction of Israel, their support for anti-Israel armed groups and the country’s nuclear program.

Israel and Iran are locked in a long-standing shadow war. Suspected Israeli assassination campaign kills top Iranian nuclear scientists. Iran’s nuclear facilities have been hacked or sabotaged, all in mysterious attacks blamed on Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks on ships in the Middle East in recent years, which later escalated into attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels against ships through the Red Sea corridor.

But since the October 7 attack by Hamas, the battle is increasingly out in the open. Israel has recently turned its attention to Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets at Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

Since then, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials, who do not draw a line between civilians and militants. Israeli military operations in the West Bank have since killed hundreds more.

During the year, a number of senior Iranian military personnel were killed in Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon.

Iran launched a barrage 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 rockets and drones caused minimal damage and Israel – under pressure from Western countries to show restraint – responded with a limited strike.

But after Iran’s missile strike in early October, Israel promised a tougher response.