The USA and Israel have struck a number of places throughout Iran, together with the capital, Tehran, in what US President Donald Trump described as “main fight operations”.
The assaults come amid negotiations between the US and Iran over the latter’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes, after weeks of mounting threats from Trump – and eight months after the US and Israel waged a 12-day struggle in opposition to Iran.
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Iran has struck again with missiles geared toward northern Israel and at US army bases within the Center East. Particulars of casualties and harm in Iran and Israel are sparse in the mean time.
Right here’s what we all know to this point:
What occurred in Iran?
At about 9:27am (06:27 GMT), Iran’s Fars information company reported a sequence of explosions within the capital, Tehran.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in western Tehran mentioned he heard two explosions, whereas movies shared on social media confirmed smoke rising from a number of elements of town.
Israel first introduced that it had launched missile strikes on targets inside Iran.
A US official informed Al Jazeera that the strikes have been carried out as a part of a joint army operation with Israel. In current weeks, Washington has assembled a big fleet of fighter jets and warships within the area, its most vital army buildup there for the reason that Iraq Battle.
Trump described the operation as “huge and ongoing”.
The US Division of Protection later mentioned the mission was named “Operation Epic Fury”, marking the primary public assertion from the US army for the reason that begin of the joint US-Israeli assault.
The place in Iran have the US and Israel attacked?
A number of missiles struck College Avenue and the Jomhouri space in Tehran, and near Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters, Fars reported.
The Related Press information company reported {that a} strike in Iran’s capital occurred close to the places of work of Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim information company reported that explosions additionally occurred in Tehran’s northern Seyyed Khandan space.
Explosions have additionally been reported within the cities of Kermanshah, Qom, Tabriz, Isfahan, Ilam and Karaj, in addition to in Lorestan province, in accordance with native media.
What did Donald Trump say?
Whereas asserting “main fight operations”, Trump mentioned that the goal of the US marketing campaign was to “destroy their missiles and raze their missile trade to the bottom”.
“We’re going to annihilate their navy,” Trump added.
Listed below are the important thing factors of his message
- The US has begun main fight operations in Iran, describing them as “huge and ongoing”.
- The acknowledged goal is to get rid of what Washington calls imminent threats from the Iranian authorities.
Trump mentioned the marketing campaign’s army targets embrace:
- Destroying Iran’s missile capabilities.
- Goal Iran’s navy.
- Disrupting Iran-backed armed teams within the area.
- Ensuring that Iran doesn’t receive a nuclear weapon.
He additionally laid out a warning-cum-offer to Iran’s army personnel. In the event that they laid down their weapons, Trump mentioned, he would guarantee that they had amnesty. But when they didn’t, he warned, they’d face “sure demise”. He acknowledged US forces might face casualties.
Reuters quoted a US official as saying that the Trump administration was planning a “multiday operation”.
The US president’s feedback recommend that Trump was setting “the desk for a revolution in Iran” — 73 years after the CIA orchestrated a coup in opposition to democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reported from Washington.
“They’ve executed it earlier than. This time, they’re doing it with weapons and bombs relatively than covertly by means of the CIA,” Fisher mentioned. “It’s clear that that is going to be a steady army operation, with Donald Trump accepting the truth that there could also be casualties.”
What’s Iran’s response?
Iran retaliated by first launching missiles in direction of Israel, in accordance with the Israeli army. Air-raid sirens sounded in a number of elements of the nation, and explosions have been reported in northern Israel.
“The general public is requested to comply with the directions of the House Entrance Command,” Israel’s army mentioned in a press release. “Right now, the Israeli Air Pressure is working to intercept and strike threats the place essential to take away the menace.”
However quickly after, Iranian forces launched missiles at a number of places linked to US army operations throughout the area, together with:
- Al Udeid airbase in Qatar.
- Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait.
- Al-Dhafra airbase within the United Arab Emirates.
- The US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
- Explosions have been additionally heard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s nationwide safety fee, threatened a “crushing” response. “We warned you!” Azizi wrote on social media. “Now you’ve gotten began down a path whose finish is not in your management.”
The place are Iran’s leaders?
It isn’t instantly clear the place the 86-year-old Khamenei is. He hasn’t been seen publicly in days as tensions with america have grown.
Roads to Khamenei’s compound in downtown Tehran have been shut down by authorities as blasts rang out throughout the capital.
In the meantime, Iran’s state-run IRNA information company quoted a supply within the presidential workplace as saying that President Masoud Pezeshkian was unhurt.
