Israel’s surprise attack on targets across Iran on Friday, has been followed by three days of escalating strikes, as both sides threatened more devastation in the biggest ever confrontation between the longstanding enemies.
Here’s a round-up of the conflict so far:
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Israel hit more than 100 major targets in Iran on Friday, including nuclear facilities and missile sites, and killed senior military commanders and scientists. Satellite imagery showed significant damage to areas of the Natanz nuclear site, Iran’s most significant nuclear enrichment facility, but the fuel enrichment plant appeared to be undamaged. A nuclear research centre in Isfahan was also hit.
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Among those killed were senior military figures – including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen Hossein Salami – as well as at least six Iranian nuclear scientists.
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Israeli strikes continued over the weekend and into Monday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted air defences around the Tehran and claimed they had gained control of the skies over the capital. Israel’s military said it had hit “more than 80” targets in Tehran since Saturday, including the defence ministry headquarters and missile launchers used to strike Israel and defend Iran. The Iranian oil ministry said Israel had targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area. Iran has accused Israel of hitting civilian areas in Tehran with the health ministry reporting that Israeli strikes had killed 224 people since Friday.
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Iran has launched several waves of missiles at Israel since Friday, with Israeli authorities saying at least 14 people had been killed since Friday and 390 injured. Rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women, and six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of a missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Those number were set to rise on Monday after Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and Haifa, with fires were seen burning at a power plant in the northern city.
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Iran warned the US, UK and France that their military bases and ships would be targeted if they helped block the Iranian missile and drone retaliation for Israel’s attack. US officials told some media that American air defence systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down some incoming ballistic missiles on Friday. The UK was moving jets and other military assets to the Middle East, as UK prime minister Keir Starmer refused to rule out defending Israel.
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In justifying the attack, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had acted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine nuclear bombs. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board ruled on Thursday that Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in failing to cooperate fully with IAEA inspections and for amassing an estimated 400kg of highly enriched uranium. Western intelligence assessments until now have generally said Iran has not taken the final decision to build a bomb.
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Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment” and claimed residential areas had been targeted. The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday were cancelled and Tehran reportedly told prospective mediators Qatar and Oman that it was not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack.
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The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said early on Friday that the US had not taken part in the Israeli attack, which he described as “unilateral”, but by later in the day, president Donald Trump told reporters that the US had been aware of the impending attack. At the G7 conference in Canada on Sunday, Trump claimed he was working behind the scenes on a deal, while elsewhere Reuters reported that the president had vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s supreme leader.
