Israel targeting Tehran's Evin prison, ‘agencies of repression': minister
JERUSALEM: Israel targeted Tehran's notorious Evin prison as well as the command centres of security agencies in Iran responsible for 'maintaining the regime's stability', a minister and the military said Monday.
The Israeli military 'is carrying out strikes of unprecedented force against regime targets and agencies of government repression in the heart of Tehran', Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X as the Iran-Israel war raged for an 11th day.
These included Evin prison -- 'which holds political prisoners and regime opponents' -- as well as the command centres of the domestic Basij militia and the powerful Revolutionary Guards, he added.
In a separate statement, the military said that it was hitting command centres of security forces including the Revolutionary Guards, a wing of the Iranian military.
'These forces... are responsible on behalf of the Iranian regime's military for defending the homeland security, suppressing threats, and maintaining the regime's stability,' it said in a statement.
Israel began its military campaign against Iran on June 13 with strikes on the country's nuclear and missile facilities, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as an 'existential' threat for his country.
But the list of targets has widened since then, encompassing state television and the Iranian domestic security forces, raising speculation that Israel is seeking to topple Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
President Donald Trump hinted Sunday at interest in changing Iran's system of government, despite several of his administration officials earlier stressing that US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites overnight on Saturday-Sunday did not have that goal.
'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
AFP journalists heard explosions in northern Tehran on Monday and Iran's Red Crescent reported a strike near its building in the area.
Evin prison is often used to hold foreign nationals and Iranians that are seen by rights groups as political prisoners.
Iran is believed to hold around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been published, in what some Western governments describe as a strategy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions.
The prison is a large, heavily fortified complex located in a northern district of the Iranian capital, and is notorious among activists for alleged rights abuses.
At least three waves of incoming Iranian missiles were reported by the Israeli military on Monday.
Katz, a hardliner in Netanyahu's government, added that 'for every rocket fired at Israel's home front, the Iranian dictator will be severely punished, and the attacks will continue with full force'.
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