Iran defends itself with retaliatory missile strikes on Israel, dozens Injured
Iran asserts its right to self-defence following deadly Israeli strikes, launching retaliatory missile attacks on major cities across Israel. By SINAR DAILY REPORTER
14 Jun 2025 08:44am
This picture shows a trail from an Iranian rocket in the sky above Jerusalem on June 13, 2025. Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel in a counter-strike on June 13, after an unprecedented onslaught hammered the Islamic republic's top military brass and targeted its nuclear facilities and bases. - (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
SHAH ALAM - Explosions rocked Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Friday night as Iran launched long-range missile strikes targeting major Israeli cities, in a retaliatory move following Israel's largest-ever military assault on the Islamic Republic this week.
Foreign media reported air raid sirens blared across Israel as Iranian missiles pierced the night sky with at least 40 people were reported injured, including two critically, after several buildings were struck.
The Israeli military said fewer than 100 missiles were launched in two waves, with most either intercepted or falling short.
However, significant damages were still reported, especially in densely populated areas.
Israel's airstrikes earlier in the week had targeted critical Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure, including the Natanz pilot enrichment facility, which United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi confirmed was "destroyed."
In a fiery warning, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that Israel "must expect severe punishment" for what he labelled a "crime" - the assassination of several senior military officials and six nuclear scientists. First-responders gather outside a that was hit by an Israeli strike in Tehran on June 13, 2025. Israel hit about 100 targets in Iran on June 13, including nuclear facilities and military command centres and killing senior figures including the armed forces chief and top nuclear scientists. - (Photo by MEGHDAD MADADI / TASNIM NEWS / AFP)
Among the high-ranking Iranian casualties were the armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri and Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami.
Iran said the total death toll from Israeli strikes has risen to 78, with over 320 people wounded, most of them civilians.
Reaffirming Tehran's stance, Iran's UN envoy accused the United States (US) of complicity in the Israeli attacks and held Washington fully responsible for the consequences.
After the Israeli attacks on Iran, a nearly three-hour emergency Security Council meeting saw the Iranian ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani stating that Israel's attack on Iran is a declaration of war.
He said it was a premeditated act of aggression, calling it "barbaric and criminal" and a direct violation of numerous international legal instruments, including the IAEA Statute and the Geneva Convention.
He dubbed these actions "deliberate and systematic killings" were not only "illegal, but inhuman."
"Iran affirms its inherent right to self-defence, as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter and will respond decisively and proportionately to this act of aggression at a time, in a place and by means of its choosing.
"This is not a threat. This is a natural consequence of an unprovoked military attack," he said. People and first-responders gather atop a building a that was hit by an Israeli strike in Tehran on June 13, 2025. Israel hit about 100 targets in Iran on June 13, including nuclear facilities and military command centres and killing senior figures including the armed forces chief and top nuclear scientists. - (Photo by MEGHDAD MADADI / TASNIM NEWS / AFP)
Meanwhile, Israel's ambassador Danny Danon said this was an act of self-preservation for the state of Israel, saying they not only attacked Iran's nuclear sites, but also military leaders, the nuclear programme and military infrastructure.
He claimed that "Israel waited for diplomacy to work, but it didn't."
He claimed that there were supposed to be more talks between the US and Iran to try to reach a peaceful resolution this weekend.
He said he came to the Security Council not asking for permission, but instead, recognition that the international community has failed to stop Iran's nuclear programme.
In other news, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US was "not involved" in the strikes and warned Iran against attacking American bases in the region.
More Like This
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
NST Leader: Israel's banditry
ISRAEL is its own enemy. And the enemy of the United States, too, as once pointed out by prominent Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy: "With friends like Israel, the US needs no enemy". The expansionist ambition of the Zionist regime led by Benjamin Netanyahu is taking Tel Aviv on a warpath with any nation it chooses to call its enemy. On Friday, it chose Iran, bombing nuclear sites and residential areas, killing several generals, nuclear scientists and children. Earlier, it was Iraq, and lately Lebanon and Syria. Who else is next is anybody's guess. Being a hubristic rogue state, it cares nothing for international law. We witnessed this in its disrespect for resolution after resolution of the United Nations Security Council, the law-making arm of the world body. It has equal disrespect for the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, ignoring the arrest warrants of the former and the rulings of the latter. There is no basis in international law for Israel's airstrikes on Iran, a sovereign country. Israel needs the approval of the UNSC in the absence of a clear and immediate threat from Iran. Clearly, there was none, though Tel Aviv says Iran had a plan to destroy Israel. When did a plan, even if it is true, become a "clear and immediate threat"? If the international community allows a sovereign nation to be attacked on such flimsy grounds, it must stand ready to host a free-for-all world order. Calling the strikes as a declaration of war, Iran is already raining ballistic missiles on Tel Aviv. Israel is under fire. No one knows where it will all end. Puzzlingly, no Western nations, which rush to say "Israel has a right to defend itself" with practised hypocrisy, chose not to say the same for Iran. Hypocrisy rules, not okay. Who attacked whom? Call it a replay of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, with Israel playing the victim ad nauseam. We now know that the US was informed of the planned illegal attack and yet it didn't stop Netanyahu. Now the already muddled Middle East is facing the possibility of a regional war that will have a ripple effect on the rest of the world. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rightly called Israel's airstrikes on Iran "banditry". He warned that Israel's aggressive behaviour could drag the world into disaster and urged the international community to put an end to Israel's lawless actions. Speaking in the context of Gaza, Levy told the Turkish news agency, Anadolu Agency, two years ago that peace will not come from Israelis; they must be made to pay the price of occupation. Who will make them pay? Clearly, the international community. But therein lies a problem. To borrow the words of former European Union top official Josep Borrell, again spoken in the context of Gaza, the international community is suffering from political and moral failure. It is crippled by one country — the US — which can end Israel's impunity, if it wanted to. The UN will do well to revisit Erdogan's suggestion to the 79th UN General Assembly that it recommend the use of force against Israel if the UNSC fails to act.
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Thousands Seoul's LGBT community gathers for annual festival after liberal president elected
South Korea's LGBTQ community and supporters wave flags, as they attend a Pride parade, during the Seoul Queer Culture Festival, in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. -- Photo: REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon SEOUL (AFP): Tens of thousands of LGBTQ South Koreans and supporters gathered in central Seoul for annual Pride celebrations on Saturday, with a central government agency represented for the first time. Same-sex marriage remains unrecognised in Asia's fourth-largest economy and activists have long emphasised the need for legislation outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The parade, one of Asia's largest, is celebrating its 26th edition and went ahead after South Korea endured one of the worst political crises in its recent history. LGBTQ Koreans joined mass protests in recent months against ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid in December. Yoon, whose hardline evangelical supporters have long been hostile to sexual minorities, is now on trial for insurrection. "This year, amid growing political uncertainty, there was deep deliberation over whether to hold the event," organisers said in a statement. "Though the times may appear to be progressing, they have in many ways regressed... And yet, because of this, in spite of this... we will never stop living as our true selves." The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency joined the parade, the first central government body to do so. "We joined today's event as it draws many young people... making it an ideal (space) for public outreach on prevention," Hyun Jung-hee, a senior staff scientist, told AFP. Participants beamed beneath rainbow flags, some blowing bubbles with joy while others handed out colourful bouquets. Across the street, evangelical Christians shouted slogans such as "Homosexuality is a sin!" while performing a traditional Korean fan dance. One 29-year-old parade participant, who gave her nickname as Door, said the event opened her eyes to new possibilities. "All kinds of people come here. Some say, 'I don't think I'm queer, but I get them'," she told AFP. "Seeing that kind of diversity made me realise the world is bigger than I thought -- and that's why I keep coming back." - Reuters
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Netanyahu's obsession with Iran goes back a long way
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nearly 20-year-old threat to strike Iran came true on Friday, as US President Donald Trump warned Teheran of further "brutal" attacks if it refuses to negotiate. In its largest military action against Iran to date, Israel's strikes hit about 100 targets, including nuclear facilities and military command centres, and killed the armed forces' chief, top nuclear scientists and other senior figures. The strikes came as the United States and Iran were due to meet in Oman today to pick up negotiations towards an agreement on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. "We are fairly close to a pretty good agreement," Trump said on Thursday, hours before news broke of the Israeli attacks. "I don't want them going in, because I think it would blow it," Trump added, speaking of the Israelis. But on Friday, Trump seemed unbothered by Israel's action, and on his Truth Social platform urged Iran to make a deal. "There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end," he wrote. Netanyahu, who has always scorned talks with Iran, paid no heed to Trump's original warning and took advantage of the seismic changes in the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023. "I doubt Israel would do this if the US told it not to," Menachem Merhavy, an Iran expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said. Merhavy said the timing of the attack "makes sense because Israel has been clipping the wings of Iran for the last year and a half", in actions against Tehran-aligned groups and proxies in the region, many of whom Israel has significantly weakened. Netanyahu said he had "ordered" the attack on Iran's nuclear programme months ago. "It was necessary to act and I set the implementation date for the end of April 2025," Netanyahu said. "For various reasons, it did not work out." But his obsession with Iran goes back much further than the ongoing Gaza war, sparked by an unprecedented attack by Tehran-backed Hamas. After Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused international uproar in 2005 when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", Netanyahu — then an opposition leader following his first term as premier in 1996-1999 — called Tehran's nuclear programme "a serious threat for the future". At the time, he said Israel "must do everything" to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb, even if it meant striking the country's nuclear facilities as Israel had in Iraq in 1981. Iran has consistently denied seeking atomic weapons, but after his return to power in 2009, Netanyahu repeatedly dismissed Tehran's assurances that its nuclear programme was meant for civilian purpose only, and advocated a "military option". Netanyahu called the United Nations Security Council's 2015 approval of an agreement with world powers lifting sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities a "historic mistake". In 2018, he applauded Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the agreement, effectively scrapping it. Iran's reaction was to gradually abandon its commitments, enriching uranium to levels close to weapons-grade material and in unprecedented quantities. This gave Netanyahu a justification to keep up the fight against Iran's nuclear programme. All the while, Israel's Mossad spy agency worked in secret to undermine Iran's nuclear programme. Since the start of the Gaza war, Netanyahu has said on several occasions he was seeking to "reshape the Middle East". Late last year, Israel dealt a hard blow to Iran's so-called "axis of resistance" by crippling Lebanese armed group Hizbollah. The fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, another Iranian ally, helped cement the regional dominance of Israel — the Middle East's only, if undeclared, nuclear power. But it was an Israeli response to 200 Iranian missiles last October that "changed the balance of power" between the two foes, according to statements at the time by then defence minister Yoav Gallant, after a series of Israeli strikes inside Iran — a rare direct confrontation.
