Iran fires back at Israel after onslaught targets nuclear facilities

Iran fires back at Israel after onslaught targets nuclear facilities

Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel in a counter-strike Friday, after an unprecedented onslaught hammered the Islamic republic's top military brass and targeted its nuclear facilities and bases.

Iran said it had activated its air-defense system Friday night and explosions could be heard Friday night across Tehran, AFP reporters said.

Air raids sirens and explosions rang out across Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the airwaves to warn he expected "several waves of Iranian attacks" in response.

Smoke could later be seen billowing above the 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 Friday its teams were responding to several "major" incidents resulting from Iranian missile attacks.

They included efforts to rescue people trapped in a high-rise building. Rescuers said 34 people had been wounded, including a woman in critical condition.

Even as the latest strikes started, Iran's ambassador to the UN said Friday that 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes.

- Calls for dialogue -

US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to 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 Netanyahu Friday, US officials said, without elaborating.

Iran's missile salvo came hours after Israel said its wide-spread 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.

"The armed forces of the Islamic republic will inflict heavy blows upon this malevolent enemy," Khamenei told the nation.

In Israel, Netanyahu issued a video statement addressed to the Iranian public, calling on them to unite against an "evil and oppressive regime."

But he also warned that more attacks were on the way. 

"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 in the video statement.

Following the first wave of strikes early Friday, Trump urged Iran to "make a deal" on its nuclear programme, warning of "even more brutal" attacks to come.

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".

- Security Council meeting -

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, while state media said a senior adviser to the supreme leader had himself been wounded.

"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.

Friday's evening UN Security Council emergency meeting was called by Iran, and supported by Russia and China, a diplomatic source told AFP.

Oil prices surged while stocks sank on the Israeli strikes, which came after Trump's warning of a "massive conflict" in the region.

- Radiation 'unchanged' in Natanz area -

The violence raised questions as to whether Sunday's sixth round of talks planned between the US and Iran to seek a deal on Iran's nuclear programme would go ahead in Oman.

Trump said 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.

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Originally published as Iran fires back at Israel after onslaught targets nuclear facilities