عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Israel Strikes Iran Military Targets

Part of the city skyline is pictured at dawn after several explosions were heard in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Part of the city skyline is pictured at dawn after several explosions were heard in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT
TT

Israel Strikes Iran Military Targets

Part of the city skyline is pictured at dawn after several explosions were heard in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Part of the city skyline is pictured at dawn after several explosions were heard in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, saying it was retaliating against Tehran's strikes on Israel this month.

Iranian media reported multiple explosions over several hours in the capital and at nearby military bases, starting shortly after 2 a.m.

Before dawn, Israel's public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed and that the operation was over.

Iran said its air defense system successfully countered Israel's attacks on military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam with "limited damage" to some locations.

The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's retaliation for a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, in which around 200 missiles were fired at Israel and one person was killed in the West Bank.

Tensions between arch rivals Israel and Iran have escalated since Hamas, the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group based in Gaza, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has been supported by Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants, also backed by Iran.

Fears that Iran and the US would be drawn into a regional war have risen with Israel's intensifying assault on Hezbollah since last month, including airstrikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut and a ground operation, as well as its year-old war in Gaza.
"In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel – right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran," Israel's military said in a statement announcing the attack.

The military said later it had completed its "targeted" attacks in Iran, striking truck missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-aerial equipment, adding its planes had safely returned home.

"If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond," the military said.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly warned Israel against any attack.
"Iran reserves the right to respond to any aggression, and there is no doubt that Israel will face a proportional reaction for any action it takes," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Saturday, citing sources.

Videos carried by Iranian media showed air defenses continuously firing at apparently incoming projectiles in central Tehran, without saying which sites were coming under attack.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps bases that were attacked were not damaged.

A spokesperson for Iran's Civil Aviation Organization said flights on all routes were cancelled until further notice, state news agency IRNA reported. Neighboring Iraq also suspended all flights until further notice, its state news agency said.

Israel said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other security officials had closely followed the operation at the military's command and control center in Tel Aviv.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

S. Korea's Yoon Ignored Cabinet Opposition to Martial Law

Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP
Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP
TT
TT

S. Korea's Yoon Ignored Cabinet Opposition to Martial Law

Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP
Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP

South Korea's suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol ignored the objections of key cabinet ministers before his failed martial law bid last month, according to a prosecutors' report seen by AFP on Sunday.
Yoon plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence, surrounded by hundreds of security officers resisting arrest efforts.
The full 83-page prosecution report to indict former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun said the country's then prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister all expressed reservations the night of the decision.
They made their concerns clear about the economic and diplomatic fallout in a cabinet meeting, which Yoon called before his short-lived power grab.
"The economy would face severe difficulties, and I fear a decline in international credibility," then prime minister Han Duck-soo told Yoon, according to the report seen by AFP.
Han became acting president after Yoon was stripped of his duties, but was also impeached by opposition MPs who argued he refused demands to complete Yoon's impeachment process and to bring him to justice.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul reportedly said martial law would have "diplomatic repercussions but also destroy the achievements South Korea has built over the past 70 years".
Acting president Choi Sang-mok, also finance minister, argued the decision would have "devastating effects on the economy and the country's credibility".
Despite the objections, Yoon said "there is no turning back", claiming the opposition -- which won a landslide in April's parliamentary election -- would lead the country to collapse.
"Neither the economy nor diplomacy will function," he reportedly said.
An earlier summary of the report provided to the media last month revealed Yoon authorized the military to fire their weapons to enter parliament during the failed bid.
The suspended president's lawyer Yoon Kab-keun dismissed the prosecutors' report.
He told AFP the indictment report alone does not constitute an insurrection and "it doesn't align legally, and there's no evidence either".
Yoon remains under investigation on charges of insurrection and faces arrest, prison or, at worst, the death penalty.
The Constitutional Court slated January 14 for the start of Yoon's impeachment trial, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence.
The court may take the prosecutors' report on Kim -- one of the first indicted over the martial law bid -- into consideration.