Israeli security source says top military leaders and nuclear scientists were targeted in opening strikes
CNN analyst Barak Ravid weighs in on the reports that an Israeli security source briefed reporters that Iran's top military leaders as well as senior nuclear scientists were targeted in the opening strikes. Iranian state media reports Commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killed.
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Politico
24 minutes ago
- Politico
Death toll grows as Israel and Iran trade attacks for third day
The death toll grew Sunday as Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks for a third consecutive day, with Israel warning that worse is to come. Israel targeted Iran's Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran and sites it alleged were associated with Iran's nuclear program, while Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses and slammed into buildings deep inside Israel. In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country's total death toll to 13. The country's main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day. There was no update to an Iranian death toll released the day before by Iran's U.N. ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded. The region braced for a drawn-out conflict after Israel's strikes hit nuclear and military facilities, killing several senior generals and top nuclear scientists. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had 'nothing to do with the attack on Iran' and warned Tehran to expect 'the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces' if it retaliates against the United States. The powerful Iran-linked Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah on Sunday warned it will target U.S. interests and bases in the region if Washington intervenes in the hostilities between Israel and Iran. The group said in a statement that it is 'closely monitoring the movements of the American enemy's military in the region' and 'should the United States intervene in the war (between Israel and Iran), we will directly target its interests and bases spread throughout the region without hesitation.' The statement was the first explicit and direct threat issued by an Iraqi militia to target U.S. forces and interests in the region since the outbreak of the Iran-Israel conflict. Iraqi militias have previously targeted U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, but have largely remained quiet since Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Iran and Tehran retaliated. Three drones launched at the Ain al Assad base housing U.S. troops in western Iraq on Friday were shot down, and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Iran said an Israeli strike that killed the head of the Revolutionary Guard's missile program also took out seven of his trusted deputies, seriously disrupting its command. Iran previously acknowledged the death of Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard's aerospace division in Friday's strike. Also killed were Gen. Mahmoud Bagheri, Gen. Davoud Sheikhian, Gen. Mohammad Bagher Taherpour, Gen. Mansour Safarpour, Gen. Masoud Tayyeb, Gen. Khosro Hasani and Gen. Javad Jarsara, the Guard said Sunday. The Guard did not elaborate on why the men had gathered in one place.
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel and Iran bombard each other as Trump says conflict can easily end
By Maayan Lubell and Parisa Hafezi JERUSALEM/DUBAI (Reuters) -Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, killing scores, as U.S. President Donald Trump said the conflict could be ended easily while warning Tehran not to strike any U.S. targets. Israeli rescue teams combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in strikes, using flashlights and sniffer dogs to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, authorities said. Iran has said at least 138 people have been killed in Israel's onslaught since Friday, including 60 on Saturday, half of them children, when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran. The Israeli military warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate after both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said Israel's attacks would intensify, not abate. An official said Israel still had a long list of targets in Iran and declined to say how long the offensive would continue. Those attacked on Saturday evening included two "dual-use" fuel sites that supported military and nuclear operations, he said. Trump has lauded Israel's offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the U.S. has taken part in it. He warned Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include U.S. facilities or interests. "If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before," he said in a message on Truth Social. "However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict." The United States had been negotiating with Iran to try to secure a commitment to severely restrict its nuclear programme, which Iran says is purely civilian but Israel sees as an existential threat because of its weapons potential. Trump gave no details of any possible deal. IRAN IN BREACH OF NUCLEAR OBLIGATIONS Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Israel's attacks had been aimed at sabotaging those talks, which were due to resume in Oman on Sunday before being cancelled. He said the offensive had the support of the U.S. and that Iran was acting only in self-defence. Israel, which has not signed the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, says it aims to stop Iran from developing atomic weapons, and eliminate its ballistic missile capability. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday declared Iran in breach of its obligations under the NPT. Israeli officials have acknowledged that the strikes are unlikely to halt the programme altogether but voiced hopes that they can bring about a comprehensive U.S.-Iran deal. Iran said Israel had attacked the Shahran oil depot in the capital but that the situation was under control. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Israel had attacked an oil refinery near the capital on Sunday, causing a fire, and Iran's defence ministry, causing minor damage. It also reported the arrest of two people in Alborz province accused of belonging to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. In Israel, the latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11 p.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT), when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters. Around 2:30 a.m. (2330 GMT Saturday), the military warned of another incoming missile barrage and again urged residents to shelter. Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies and interceptor rockets were deployed. The Iran-aligned Houthis who control most of Yemen said they had launched ballistic missiles towards Jaffa near Tel Aviv, the first time an ally of Iran has reportedly joined the fray. At one time, Iran could have expected military support from proxy forces in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq. However, 20 months of war against the Hamas militia in Gaza and last year's conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah have decimated Tehran's strongest regional proxies, reducing its options for retaliation. The Israeli military official said Israel had targeted the Houthis' chief of staff overnight. IRANIAN MISSILE HITS RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS Israeli authorities said at least 10 people had been killed overnight, including three children, and more than 140 injured, by missiles that had hit homes in northern and central Israel. In the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel, four women were killed, including a mother and her two daughters. At least six people were killed by an Iranian missile that hit a cluster of residential buildings including multi-storey apartments in the town of Bat Yam. Shmuel Bar David, 62, returned briefly to what remained of his home there. "I've lived here for 35 years," he said, adding his family survived "by miracle". In all, at least 13 people in Israel have been killed and more than 350 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks. In the first apparent attack on Iran's energy infrastructure, Tasnim said Iran had partially suspended production at South Pars, the world's biggest gas field, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday. South Pars, off Iran's southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran. Fears about potential disruption to the region's oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9% on Friday, even though Israel spared Iran's oil and gas industry on the first day of its attacks. Share markets in the region opened for the first time since the Israeli strikes, with Tel Aviv stocks edging higher after an early dip and Saudi shares down 1.5%. With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran's people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Reeves vows to shield UK from Israel-Iran price shock
Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the government will do "everything in [its] power" to protect people in the UK from the knock-on economic effects of the conflict between Iran and Israel. She would not "take anything off the table" in response to the threat of rising energy costs, she told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. The global oil price rose sharply on Friday following the initial attacks by Israel and Iran's subsequent response. A rise in the cost of oil pushes up petrol and diesel prices and can fuel inflation more broadly. Following Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, oil prices spiked to nearly $130 a barrel, contributing to higher prices for UK shoppers on everything from transport to food. However the cost of a barrel of oil, currently around $75, is still lower than it was in January. "There is no complacency from myself or the Treasury," Reeves told the BBC. In 2022, following the start of the Ukraine war, the Conservative government responded to higher energy prices by stepping in to help households with their bills. "We are not anywhere near that stage at the moment," the chancellor said. Household energy bills respond slowly to rising wholesale energy prices, and average bills, as set by the price cap, are due to come down in July. If the conflict continues, and in particular if there is disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway off the south coast of Iran, the price of oil and gas could rise further. However, oil market experts say there is currently less upward pressure on the price of oil than there was three years ago. How the Israel-Iran conflict could affect energy prices Reeves said the situation in the Middle East was part of the reason that she had raised spending on both defence and energy security, in her announcement last week, which outlined the government's budgets for the rest of the parliament. "A lack of investment in our own domestic energy production has left us exposed," she said. "The investment [announced in the Spending Review] in nuclear energy, in offshore wind, in onshore wind, in carbon capture and storage, is all about ensuring we are more self-sufficient as a nation," she said. Many of those investments will take several years to complete, but some of the government's planned investments could have an impact "in the shorter term" such as investment in home insulation, she added. Lord John Browne, former chief executive of the energy giant BP, said he also believed it was time to "push very hard" on energy security, and on the transition away from fossil fuels. Lord Browne, who now chairs BeyondNetZero, a fund investing in carbon transition technologies, told Laura Kuenssberg some of the government's plans were "too bullish" and would take more time than planned. Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the implications of the latest conflict for "oil prices, equity prices... trading and inflation and therefore interest rates and the general state of the world economy" were very important. He said the UK economy needed to be "much stronger" to cope with the challenges it is now facing, adding that the government had made the wrong choices by increasing taxes on business. Plans for borrowing and spending had kept inflation higher, he said. How the Israel-Iran conflict could affect energy prices Reeves boosts NHS and housing as some budgets squeezed Crisis - which crisis? Israel-Iran another huge challenge for government
