TEHRAN: Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes on Israel early Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, following a series of intense Israeli attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and military assets, according to the Associated Press.
Israel’s assault used warplanes, as well as drones smuggled into the country in advance, to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in the attacks.
Israel asserted the barrage was necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon, although experts and the U.S. government have assessed that Tehran was not actively working on such a weapon before the strikes.
Iran retaliated by launching drones and later firing waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below. The Israeli military urged civilians, to head to shelter for hours.
The Israeli military said dozens of missiles -- some intercepted -- had been fired in the latest salvos from Iran.
Smoke was billowing above skyscrapers in downtown Tel Aviv, an AFP journalist reported, as Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.
Israel's firefighting service said its teams were responding to the aftermath of Iranian missile strikes, including working to rescue people trapped in a high-rise building.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had vowed on Friday that those behind the Israeli strikes would not “escape safely” from their “great crime.”
A hospital in Tel Aviv treated seven people after the second barrage, with one woman killed. Later, a missile struck Rishon Lezion, killing two and injuring 19, according to Israeli officials. Four homes were severely damaged, says the Associated Press.
Resident Chen Gabizon told news agency AFP that he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert notification.
"After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place," he said.
In Iran's capital Tehran early Saturday, fire and heavy smoke billowed from Mehrabad airport, an AFP journalist said, as local media reported a blast in the area.
Iran said earlier it had activated its air-defence system and explosions could be heard across the capital.
Dozens of people took to the streets of Tehran overnight to cheer their country's military response, with some waving national flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.
Iran's ambassador to the UN said Friday that 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes by Israel.
After a day of back-and-forth bombardments, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire between the two nations. “Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail,” he wrote on X late Friday.
In a sharp response, Iran—without directly naming the UN chief—dismissed the appeal, stating, “If you were silent during two years of Palestinian massacres and last night’s attack on Iran, don’t call for restraint now. Stay quiet.”
Calls for dialogue
US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to do with Israel's strikes on Iran.
US President Donald Trump agreed on a call with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that "dialogue and diplomacy" were needed to calm the crisis, Starmer's office said.
Trump also spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday, US officials said, without elaborating.
Israel’s strikes have also cast serious doubt over upcoming nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, scheduled for Sunday in Oman, the Associated Press reported. In the wake of the attacks, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman declared that further negotiations with the U.S. had become “meaningless.”
“The U.S. did a job that made the talks become meaningless,” ministry spokesman Baghaei was quoted as saying on state television, accusing Israel of crossing all of Iran’s red lines by committing a “criminal act.”
While he condemned the strikes, Baghaei stopped short of confirming a cancellation of the talks. According to Mizan, Iran’s judiciary-run news agency, he said: “It is still not clear what we decide about Sunday's talks.”
Iran's missile salvo came hours after Israel said its widespread air raids had killed several top Iranian generals, including most of the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards' air force.
It had launched several rounds of strikes that hit about 200 targets including nuclear facilities and air bases.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to bring Israel "to ruin" during a televised address.
In Israel, Netanyahu issued a statement calling on the Iranian public to unite against their own government. But he also warned more attacks were coming.
"In the past 24 hours, we have taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime's most significant enrichment facility and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal," Netanyahu said.
While stressing that it was not involved in the Israeli attacks, the United States warned Iran not to attack its personnel or interests.
Tehran nevertheless said Washington would be "responsible for consequences".
Commanders killed
The strikes killed Iran's highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.
Khamenei swiftly appointed new commanders to replace those killed.
"The senior chain of command of the air force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had assembled in an underground command centre to prepare for an attack on the State of Israel," the Israeli military said, adding that its attacks had killed most of them.
Iran confirmed that the Guards' aerospace commander had been killed, along with "a group of brave and dedicated fighters".
AFP images showed a gaping hole in the side of a Tehran residential building that appeared to have sustained a targeted strike.
Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were among the dead.
Oil prices surged while stocks sank on the Israeli strikes.
Radiation 'unchanged' in Natanz area
The conflict raised questions as to whether Sunday's sixth round of talks planned between the United States and Iran to seek a deal on Iran's nuclear programme would go ahead in Oman.
After the first wave of strikes on Friday, Trump urged Iran to "make a deal", adding that Washington was "hoping to get back to the negotiating table".
Iran confirmed that above-ground sections of the Natanz enrichment plant had been destroyed, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels outside the site "remained unchanged".
"Most of the damage is on the surface level," said the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran's spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.
Iran said there was only limited damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites.
The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.
Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the "point of no return" on its nuclear programme.
Israel had called for global action after the IAEA accused Iran on Thursday of non-compliance with its obligations.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.
Israel's ongoing airstrikes and intelligence operation and Iran's retaliation raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
Countries in the region condemned Israel’s attack, while leaders around the globe called for immediate deescalation from both sides.
Israel had long threatened such a strike, and successive American administrations sought to prevent it, fearing it would ignite a wider conflict across the Middle East and possibly be ineffective at destroying Iran’s dispersed and hardened nuclear program.
(With inputs from Associated Press, AFP an Online Desk)
