The Israeli military says it has launched “precision strikes” on Iran in response to the Oct. 1 missile attack that Iran launched against Israel.
In a statement, the Israeli military said: “In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel – right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran.“
Iranian media reported several large explosions in the capital city of Tehran.
On October 1, Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were shot down by Israeli air defenses with the help of US forces.
That attack was in response to a series of Israeli attacks against Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike and then sending troops across the border into southern Lebanon. Israel has also pounded Lebanon with airstrikes which it says are aimed at dismantling Hezbollah, but which have killed thousands of people.
Iran had previously launched a wave of missiles at Israel in April, the first time the Islamic regime had directly attacked Israel after decades of using proxies to stage attacks. Israel and Hezbollah had been in a low grade war of cross-border fire since October 8, the day after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel. Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
After Israel launched its long-anticipated attack, the Reuters news agency cited a US official as saying there was no U.S. involvement involved in the strikes.
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said that Israel was conducting “targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated as news comes in.