VIDEO: US strikes 3 Iranian sites, joining Israeli air campaign

Gulf Today

5 hours ago

The US military struck three sites in Iran early on Sunday, inserting itself into Israel 's effort to decapitating the country's nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.
Iran's nuclear agency on Sunday confirmed attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz atomic sites, but is insisting its work will not be stopped.
The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran issued the statement after President Donald Trump announced the American attack on the facilities.
"The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped,' it said in its statement.
The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground.
President Donald Trump was the first to disclose the strikes. There was no immediate acknowledgment from the Iranian government. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country's Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate.
The US is stepping up evacuation flights for American citizens from Israel to Europe and continuing to draw down its staff at diplomatic missions in Iraq as fears of Iranian retaliation again US interests in the Middle East grow.
Even before those airstrikes were announced by President Donald Trump on Saturday evening in Washington, the US embassy in Jerusalem announced the start of evacuation flights for American civilians from Israel.
In addition to the flights, a cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 American citizens, including several hundred Jewish youngsters who had been visiting Israel on an organized tour, arrived in Cyprus, according to the document.
Donald Trump said he worked "as a team' with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the collaboration was "perhaps' like "no team has worked before.'
This handout satellite image shows an overview of Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), in Fordo, Iran. AFP
But Trump also noted that no military in the world except for that of the US could have pulled off the attack.
President Donald Trump called Iran "the bully of the Middle East' and warned of additional attacks if it didn't make peace.
"If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier,' Trump said at the White House after the bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities were announced earlier.
Trump portrayed the strike as a response to a long-festering problem, even if the objective was to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The Washington-based Arms Control Association, which focuses on nuclear nonproliferation, said the attack was an "irresponsible departure from Trump's pursuit of diplomacy and increases the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran.'
"The US military strikes on Iranian nuclear targets, including the deeply fortified, underground Fordo uranium enrichment complex, may temporarily set back Iran's nuclear program, but in the long term, military action is likely to push Iran to determine nuclear weapons are necessary for deterrence and that Washington is not interested in diplomacy,' it warned.
A police tape blocks off an area near the White House, following US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, in Washington, DC, U.S., on Saturday. Reuters
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported early Sunday that attacks also targeted the country's Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.
IRNA quoted Akbar Salehi, Isfahan's deputy governor in charge of security affairs, saying there had been attacks around the sites. He did not elaborate.
Another official confirmed an attack targeting Iran's underground Fordo nuclear site.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency early Sunday acknowledged an attack on the country's Fordo nuclear site.
Quoting a statement from Iran's Qom province, IRNA said: "A few hours ago, when Qom air defenses were activated and hostile targets were identified, part of the Fordo nuclear site was attacked by enemies.'
The IRNA report did not elaborate.
Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a provincial official in Qom that air defense did recently fire in an attack believed to target the area around the Fordo facility, but offered no other information.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, also close to the Guard, quoted another official saying air defenses opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard.
Fars also quoted the same official in Qom province, saying air defenses fired around Fordo.
President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi arrives at Baghdad International Airport. File/Reuters
President Abdel Fattah El Sissi of Egypt has expressed his government's "complete rejection' of Israel's campaign against Iran, calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict.
El Sissi's comments came in a phone call Saturday with Iranian President Masoud Pezezhkin, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
The statement said El Sissi voiced Egypt's "complete rejection of the ongoing Israeli escalation against Iran,' as a threat to the Middle East's security and stability.
The Egyptian leader called for an immediate ceasefire to resume negotiations with the aim of reaching a "sustainable, peaceful solution to this crisis.'