Israel-Iran timeline: How Israeli attack and Iranian retaliation unfolded

USA Today

5 hours ago

Israel-Iran timeline: How Israeli attack and Iranian retaliation unfolded
Iran and Israel continue to exchange strikes five days after their long-simmering conflict hit the flashpoint. Israel's surprise attack on Tehran's nuclear program and targeted assassination of Iranian leadership kicked off a sequence of events that has left hundreds reported killed and the United States at risk of being dragged further into the war. Here's a closer look at what has unfolded since Israel's initial strikes.
The maps below are based on assessments from the The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). They include confirmed airstrikes, reported airstrikes, reports of explosion with footage, and reports of explosions without footage. The data is collected from sources including geolocated visual evidence and opposition, local and international media. USA TODAY conducted additional verification on some, but not all of the strikes.
June 12
Israel conducted the first strikes of an air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear program and leadership at 11 p.m. ET, according to The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
June 13
The Israeli military conducted attacks targeting Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and hit additional targets "at the heart" of the Islamic Republic's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The surprise attack killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military commanders, Reuters reported. Netanyahu said that "Iran's leading nuclear scientists" were also targets in the attacks. Iran launched three retaliatory waves of missiles at targets in Israel.
Here's a closer look at the locations Iran's weapons and nuclear facilities, according to The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit organization which describes its mission as "reducing nuclear, biological, and emerging technology threats imperiling humanity."
June 14
The Israeli military struck an unspecified underground weapons facility in western Iran, according to ISW. Iranian state media reported that Israel bombed multiple energy facilities in southern Iran.
South Pars field – the world's largest gasfield – was struck along with the Fajr Jam gas plant. Iran's Petroleum Ministry confirmed that the Shahran depot was also targeted by Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
June 15
Israel and Iran continued to exchange airstrikes, ISW reported. Israel also targeted Iranian government buildings, such as the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry in Tehran and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security.
Iran sent hundreds of drones and missiles to Israel, damaging the country's largest oil refinery near the port city of Haifa and the Weizmann Institute of Science, a top research center in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter appeared on ABC News 'This Week' where host Martha Raddatz asked Leiter to talk about Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, suggesting that Israel cannot destroy the site located deep under a mountainside without U.S. assistance in the form of bunker-busting bombs.
Leiter suggested that Israel may not need to rely on the bomb Raddatz described, known as the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, to achieve its aims. "We have a number of contingencies which will enable us to deal with Fordow. Not everything is a matter of taking to the skies and bombing from afar," said Leiter. "We're certain that we can set back the nuclear weapons system development within Iran for a very, very long time."
June 16
An Israeli strike hit Iran's state broadcaster on Monday June 16 and bombed a command center of an elite Iranian military unit, the New York Times reported. That same day, Israel said it hit Iranian F-14 fighter planes at Tehran airport.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC it was very likely all the roughly 15,000 centrifuges operating at Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were badly damaged or destroyed because of a power cut caused by an Israeli strike.
In a social media post, Secretary of Defesne Pete Hegseth announced the "deployment of additional capabilities to the Unted States Central Command Area of Responsibility." The Washington Post, citing flight-tracking data, reports that more than two dozen tanker planes were deployed from the United States to Europe on Sunday and Monday.
Flight Animation Shows US Military Planes Heading to Europe
Animation provided by FlightRadar24 shows what it said were tankers and heavy transport jets heading towards Europe.
FlightRadar24 via Storyful
Reuters reports that U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz left the South China Sea on Monday morning heading west, according to data from ship tracking website Marine Traffic.
The Pentagon has shifted warplanes and an aircraft carrier to the Middle East as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to rage, but the moves have been defensive in nature as the U.S. observes rather than participates in Israel's punishing air campaign, according to U.S. officials.
June 17
The ongoing aerial war between Israel and Iran entered its fifth day on June 17 as Israel hit Iranian cities with bombs and some Iranian missiles evaded Israel's iron dome defense system.
More than 220 Iranians have been killed and at least 1,200 injured since the bombardment began, Iranian state media reported. Two dozen Israelis have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, officials said.
Contributing: Jennifer Borresen, Tom Vanden Brook, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, and Shawn J. Sullivan, USA TODAY
This is a developing story which will be updated.
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