The USA and Israel have struck a number of areas 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 warfare in opposition to Iran.
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Iran has struck again with missiles aimed toward northern Israel. Particulars of casualties and harm in Iran and Israel are sparse in the intervening 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 the town.
Israel first introduced that it had launched missile strikes on targets inside Iran.
A US official informed Al Jazeera that the strikes had been carried out as a part of a joint navy operation with the US. In latest weeks, Washington has assembled a big fleet of fighter jets and warships within the area, its most vital navy buildup there because the Iraq Struggle.
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 navy because the begin of the joint US-Israeli assault.
The place in Iran have the US and Israel attacked?
A number of missiles struck College Road and the Jomhouri space in Tehran, and near Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters, the Fars information company reported.
The Related Press information company reported {that a} strike in Iran’s capital occurred close to the workplaces 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, based on native media.
What did Donald Trump say?
Whereas saying “main fight operations” Trump mentioned that the purpose 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 said purpose is to remove what Washington calls imminent threats from the Iranian authorities.
Trump mentioned the marketing campaign’s navy aims embody:
- 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 navy personnel. In the event that they laid down their weapons, Trump mentioned, he would give 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 accomplished it earlier than. This time, they’re doing it with weapons and bombs moderately than covertly by way of the CIA,” Fischer mentioned. “It’s clear that that is going to be a steady navy operation, with Donald Trump accepting the truth that there could also be casualties.”
What’s Iran’s response?
Iran retaliated by first launching missiles towards Israel, based on the Israeli navy. Air raid sirens sounded in a number of elements of the nation, and explosions had been reported in northern Israel.
“The general public is requested to observe the directions of the Residence Entrance Command,” Israel’s navy mentioned in an announcement. “Presently, the Israeli Air Drive 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 areas linked to US navy operations throughout the area, together with:
- Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar
- Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait
- Al-Dhafra Air Base within the United Arab Emirates
- The US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain
- Explosions had 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 might have began down a path whose finish is now 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 the US have grown.
Roads to Khamenei’s compound in downtown Tehran had 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.
