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Israel has launched dozens of air strikes against Iran targeting its nuclear programme, military facilities and killing senior commanders in a large scale attack that pushed the Middle East to the brink of a new war.
Iranian state television said that Natanz, one of Iran’s two main nuclear plants, was struck.
It also said several senior military figures, including Major General Hossein Salami, head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, were killed, as well as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a prominent physics professor, and Fereydoon Abbasi, a former head of Iran’s atomic organisation.
After massive explosions rocked Tehran at about 3.30am local time on Friday, Iranian state television showed smoke rising from the main command headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful military force, in eastern Tehran.
State TV also broadcast images showing thick black smoke rising from the Natanz site in central Iran, which it said was struck around 4.15am.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme”, saying it targeted Natanz, the republic’s “leading nuclear scientist” and its ballistic missile plants.
An Israeli military official said dozens of strikes were launched.
Oil prices soared on the reports of the strikes, with international benchmark Brent up more than 5 per cent to $72.22 a barrel and US marker West Texas Intermediate rising by a similar margin to $71.24. Futures tracking Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 index fell 1.3 per cent.
The US said it was not involved in the attack, which came days before the Trump administration was due to hold a sixth round of negotiations with Iran in an effort to resolve the nuclear crisis diplomatically.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Washington was “fairly close to a pretty good agreement,” adding that he did not want Israel to attack Iran because it could “blow” the chances of deal.
However, he also said that: “Might help it, actually. But it also could blow it.”
Netanyahu said in a video statement that Iran was just “buying for time”.
“That is why we have no choice but to act and act now,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said Israel expected Iran to retaliate with “a missile and drone attack” as Israel closed its airspace and banned most non-essential gatherings.
Tehran vowed to retaliate against both Israel and the US, accusing Washington of providing “direct support” for the attack.
“Both the Zionist regime and the US will pay a heavy price,” said Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for Iran’s armed forces.
Shekarchi claimed that residential buildings were struck in an effort to target senior figures in their homes, which he said “does not demonstrate power”.
Iran has repeatedly warned it would retaliate against any attack, and reiterated this week that it could target US bases across the region.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said in a statement Washington was “not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region”.
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defence,” Rubio added. “Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”
The strike follows a months-long stand-off over Iran’s nuclear programme, as Tehran has for several years been enriching uranium close to weapons grade.
Both Israel and the US has vowed to prevent the republic developing nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes, but it has the capacity to produce sufficient fissile material required for a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks.
The UN atomic watchdog’s board on Thursday declared Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations, the first such censure in two decades.
The strikes cap nearly two years of conflict across the Middle East that began with the war between Israel and Hamas triggered by the militant group’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel.
Last year, Iran and Israel twice exchanged direct missile and drone fire, but those tit-for-tat assaults were contained.
Helima Croft, a former CIA analyst who is now at RBC Capital Markets, said a critical question was whether Iran would retaliate by targeting regional energy supplies.
“The fact that this strike occurred in advance of the Sunday nuclear talks between the US and Iran and after President Trump had publicly indicated that he wanted to give diplomacy a chance to run its course is remarkable,” she said.
Additional reporting by Jamie Smyth and Steff Chávez in New York
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