Defying calls for de-escalation, Israel and Iran exchange deadly fire

Boston Globe

20 hours ago

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The fighting, the most intense in decades between the two heavily armed countries, has stirred anxiety over the prospect of an increasingly deadly conflict that could draw in the United States and other major powers.
The salvos of missiles scuttled talks between the United States and Iran aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic's progress toward obtaining a nuclear weapon. The talks had been scheduled to resume in Oman on Sunday, but U.S. and Omani officials said they were canceled.
A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said Saturday that the negotiations would remain suspended until Israel ends its attacks, and he accused Washington of supporting the Israelis.
'It is obvious that in such circumstances and until the Zionist regime's aggression against the Iranian nation stops, it will be meaningless to participate in dialogue with the party that is the biggest supporter and accomplice of the aggressor,' Baghaei said.
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Fars News, an Iranian outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, reported Saturday that Israel was widening its attack, striking oil refineries and energy infrastructure. Among the targets Israel struck was the South Pars gas field in the Bushehr province, which was on fire, the outlet reported. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Residents of Tehran reported hearing explosions Saturday morning as the Iranian military activated what air defenses remained after raids on sites in Tehran overnight by dozens of Israeli warplanes, the Israeli military said.
Israeli strikes collapsed a section of a 14-story residential building near Nobonyad Square in northeastern Tehran on Friday, according to videos of the aftermath and rescue efforts verified by The New York Times. Footage taken soon after the strike showed part of the building shorn away, with dozens of apartments ripped open and people searching for survivors inside. Iranian state television reported that 60 people were killed in the strike, including 20 children.
Iranian state news media reported that the Israeli targets included a military jet hangar at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. Video filmed by a witness in Tehran and verified by the Times showed thick black smoke billowing from part of the airport, which serves military and civilian purposes.
Across Israel, people huddled in reinforced bomb shelters as air raid sirens wailed outside, warning of incoming missile fire. Loud explosions reverberated overhead as Israel's antimissile defenses intercepted many of the incoming missiles. Video from the Israeli city of Rishon LeZion showed extensive damage to homes as security forces combed through the rubble.
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Israel has conducted roughly 150 strikes on Iran over two days, while Iranian forces have fired roughly 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory, in addition to scores of drones, an Israeli military official said.
Israel's assault and Iran's apparent inability to defend itself have highlighted Iran's weakened state, putting its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a difficult spot. While he has vowed to punish Israel, he has to choose his targets carefully to avoid drawing in other countries, particularly the United States. At the same time, experts said, simply abandoning the country's nuclear program, as Israel has demanded, could destabilize the government.
The Revolutionary Guard, the powerful Iranian state security body, said that Iran was targeting only Israeli military sites used in the assault.
Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Saturday, after new rounds of Israeli strikes, that Iran would respond 'with more force.'
Israel and Iran closed their airspace after they began exchanging fire, and it remained largely empty Saturday morning, flight data from the tracking service Flightradar24 showed, though neighboring countries began cautiously reopening their airspace.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed that the air campaign will last for 'as many days as it takes' and told the Israeli public to prepare for a difficult struggle. He said Saturday that Israeli strikes had 'paved a path to Tehran' and that the Israeli air force would soon be seen flying over the Iranian capital.
Speaking to the nation in a video statement, just hours after several barrages of Iranian missiles sent millions of Israelis into bomb shelters and killed three people, Netanyahu said, 'We will strike every site and every target of the ayatollahs' regime.'
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He added, 'What they have felt until now is nothing compared to what they will feel from the might of our forces in the coming days.'
Precise casualty figures in Iran could not be confirmed, but Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the Security Council that Israel's strikes had killed 78 people and injured about 300.
On Saturday morning, at least two people were dead and about 19 injured in central Israel in the wake of an Iranian missile attack, according to Israeli health workers. Israel's emergency services published footage from the scene showing heavily damaged houses. A third person was killed earlier during an Iranian missile barrage in Ramat Gan, a suburb east of Tel Aviv, police said.
The U.S.' role in the spiraling conflict, if any, remains unclear. While Israeli officials had hoped the Trump administration would participate in a joint attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied U.S. involvement in the strikes.
But President Donald Trump did not try to block Israel from attacking Iran, and in a social media post Friday, he embraced the assault, suggesting it would give him more leverage in any future negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. 'Iran must make a deal,' the president wrote, 'before there is nothing left.'
Trump had a 50-minute telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, in which Putin briefed Trump on his conversations with the heads of Israel and Iran, and the two agreed to the possibility of restarting negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, said a top Kremlin foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov.
U.S. officials said they were moving warships and other military assets in the Middle East to help protect Israel and U.S. troops in the region.
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Two high-ranking Iranian military commanders, Mohammad Bagheri and Gen. Hossein Salami, were killed, Iranian state media said, as was Ali Shamkhani, who had been overseeing the nuclear talks with the United States.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, told the Security Council that Israel's strike had destroyed the aboveground enrichment plant in Natanz, causing some chemical and radiological contamination. But he said the leak was 'manageable.' He said Iranian authorities had reported strikes on nuclear facilities in Fordo and Isfahan as well.
Israel's strikes Friday were a multipronged operation that included deploying drones and other weapons smuggled into Iran by Israeli operatives, according to Israeli and Iranian officials. Israel also identified and tracked the movements of the key scientists and military officials who were assassinated, including at least four senior commanders.
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