Image caption, Tehran at sunrise on Saturday morning, following Israeli strikes on sites around the Iranian capital
Israel says it has conducted air strikes against Iran, with its military saying it hit sites in several areas of the country early on Saturday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israeli aircraft struck military facilities including air defence batteries and missile manufacturing facilities used to produce weapons, adding that the strikes would provide the IDF “broader freedom of aerial action” in future.
Iranian state media reported several explosions in and around the capital, Tehran.
Israeli retaliation for an Iranian barrage of almost 200 ballistic missiles fired towards Israel on 1 October had been widely expected for weeks.
At the time, Tehran said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hamas’s political leader on Iranian soil in July. Many missiles were shot down by Israel and its allies but a small number struck central and southern Israel.
The Israeli military claimed credit for Saturday’s operation shortly after explosions were reported in Iran. IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the military had “fulfilled its mission” and demonstrated its preparedness “to defend the state of Israel”.
Iranian authorities said sites in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam provinces were attacked. The military claimed that the attacks had been successfully countered, although there was “limited damage” in some locations.
The US, one of Israel’s closest allies, said Saturday’s strike against Iran was an “exercise of self-defence,” language echoed by the UK, where a government spokesman said Israel has a “right to self-defence”.
Tehran said it had attacked Israel in retaliation for what it called the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty and the martyrdom” of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed by an explosion in Tehran in July that Iranian officials blamed on Israel.
At the time, Iran said the attack was also in response to the Israeli air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, a high-ranking Iranian official.
Speaking after Israel launched its strikes on Saturday, a White House official said President Joe Biden “has been briefed and is closely following the developments”. A UK government spokesman said London was closely monitoring the situation.
However, a US defence official stressed that there had been no US involvement in the Israeli strikes on Saturday.
The extent of the attacks and the precise targets were still unclear on Saturday morning.
Iran’s aviation authority briefly suspended flights but announced that they would restart from 09:00 local time (06:30 BST).
Israeli air strikes also targeted sites in central and southern Syria, Syrian state media reported.
Two soldiers killed in Israeli strikes, Iranian army says
Two Iranian soldiers were killed in the Israeli strikes on Saturday morning, the Iranian army said.
Without clarifying where the deaths happened, the statement published on state media said that the soldiers were killed “confronting the projectiles of the criminal Zionist entity,” a reference to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory attack on Iran targeted its air defense systems and missile production facilities in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam. The extent of the damage is not yet known.
“The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran in defending the security of Iranian territory and preventing harm against the people and interests of Iran has sacrificed two personnel while confronting the projectiles of the criminal Zionist entity,” the statement published on Iranian media said.
BBC/CNN