New Delhi: Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil on Friday, US officials said, in the latest tit-for-tat exchange between the two arch foes, whose decades of shadow war has broken out into the open and threatened to drag the region deeper into conflict.
Israel launched a strike against Iran in retaliation for its weekend attack, said US officials, though media from both countries appeared to downplay the severity of the incident.
Iran activated its air defence system over several cities, state media reported, after the country’s official broadcaster said explosions were heard near Isfahan, Iran’s third-biggest city.
Several Iranian nuclear sites are located in Isfahan province, including Natanz, centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Nuclear facilities in Isfahan were reported to be “completely secure”, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said.
Though some media reports said that missiles had been fired, Iran said that they have shot down several drones but there had been “no missile attack for now”.
Several drones “have been successfully shot down by the country’s air defence, there are no reports of a missile attack for now,” Iran’s space agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian said on X.
Israel’s government and military have not commented on the strike yet. The Jewish state rarely comments on specific military actions linked to Iran.
Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport was closed to all flights, according to a notice to airmen posted on a US Federal Aviation Administration database.
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