Israel’s surprise attack on targets across Iran on Friday, has been followed by threedays of escalatingstrikes, as both sides threatened more devastation in the biggest ever confrontation between the longstanding enemies.
Here’s a round-up of the conflict so far:
Israel hit more than100 major targets in Iran on Friday, including nuclear facilities and missile sites, and killed senior military commanders and scientists. Satellite imagery showed significant damage to areas of theNatanz nuclear site, Iran’s most significant nuclear enrichment facility, but the fuel enrichment plant appeared to be undamaged. A nuclear research centre in Isfahanwas also hit.
Among those killed were senior military figures– including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces,Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),Gen Hossein Salami– as well as at least six Iranian nuclear scientists.
Israeli strikes continued over the weekend and into Monday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted air defences around the Tehran and claimed they hadgained control of the skies over the capital. Israel’s military said it had hit “more than 80” targets in Tehran since Saturday, including thedefence ministry headquartersand missile launchers used to strike Israel and defend Iran. The Iranian oil ministry said Israel had targeted twofuel depotsin the Tehran area. Iran has accused Israel of hitting civilian areas in Tehran with the health ministry reporting that Israeli strikes had killed 224 people since Friday.
Iran has launchedseveral waves of missiles at Israel since Friday, with Israeli authorities saying at least 14 people had been killed since Friday and 390 injured. Rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town ofTamra, killing four women, and six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of a missile strike inBat Yam, nearTel Aviv. Those number were set to rise on Monday afterIranian missiles struck Tel Aviv andHaifa, with fires were seen burning at a power plant in the northern city.
Iranwarned theUS,UKandFrancethat their military bases and ships would be targeted if they helped block the Iranian missile and drone retaliation for Israel’s attack. US officials told some media that American air defence systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down some incoming ballistic missiles on Friday. The UK wasmoving jets and other military assets to the Middle East, as UK prime ministerKeir Starmerrefused to rule out defending Israel.
In justifying the attack, Israel’s prime minister,Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hadacted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine nuclear bombs. TheInternational Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) board ruled on Thursday that Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in failing to cooperate fully with IAEA inspections and for amassing an estimated 400kg of highly enriched uranium. Western intelligence assessments until now have generally said Iran has not taken the final decision to build a bomb.
Iran’s supreme leader,Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment”and claimed residential areas had been targeted. The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday were cancelled and Tehran reportedly told prospective mediators Qatar and Oman that it was not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack.
The US secretary of state,Marco Rubio, said early on Friday that the US had not taken part in the Israeli attack, which he described as “unilateral”, but by later in the day, presidentDonald Trumptold reportersthat the US had been aware of the impending attack. At the G7 conference in Canada on Sunday, Trump claimed he was working behind the scenes on a deal, while elsewhere Reuters reported that the president hadvetoed an Israeli planin recent days to kill Iran’s supreme leader.