As expected, Iran has retaliated against Israel’s first strike yesterday morning. Some missiles got through, hitting buildings in Tel Aviv.
The scale of the damage does not appear to be critical; but Iran has shown that it is willing and able to fight back.
Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued defiant statements, saying that
‘The great Iranian people can be assured that the Iranian Armed Forces will act powerfully in support of them and will deliver heavy blows to this regime.’
He went on:
‘They (the Israelis) started this work and waged the war and we will not allow them to escape unscathed from this great crime.’
This was reinforced by Brigadier General Ahmadi Vahidi, a senior advisor to the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, who promised to keep fighting for as long as necessary.
Hundreds of missiles have been fired at Israel in what has been labelled Operation True Promise III. Some got through defence systems and hit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. These appear to have been aimed at military targets, but in some cases fell short and struck civilian areas.
Israel’s attack has taken Iran by surprise; it has certainly inflicted significant damage at Natanz (less so at Fordow, it seems).
This morning Israel hit the Isfahan nuclear facility, destroying a uranium metal production building, enriched uranium conversion infrastructure, laboratories and additional infrastructure.
This comes on top of the removal of a layer of very senior military figures - and top tier nuclear scientists.
The IDF announced today that even more of the latter have been killed, providing a list of names that leaves little doubt that they were not only targeted specifically but that Israeli military intelligence knew their locations inside Iran.
According to a statement
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