Israel attacks Tehran's Evin prison and Fordo access routes

Saudi Gazette

5 hours ago

LONDON — Israel has struck Tehran's Evin prison and damaged parts of the facility, which holds many political detainees, Iran's judiciary says.
The judiciary's Mizan news agency reported that the situation was "under control" following the attack, which it said violated international law. State TV footage showed first responders carrying a casualty on a stretcher and searching for survivors under a flattened building.
Israel's defense minister said it hit "regime targets and agencies of government repression" across Tehran, including Evin.
France's foreign minister said the strike on the prison was "unacceptable" because it endangered the lives of two of its citizens held there.
The Israeli military also said on Monday that it had struck access routes to the Fordo uranium enrichment plant, which is south of the capital. It came a day after US aircraft dropped "bunker-busting" bombs on the underground facility.
Iranian ballistic missiles meanwhile struck various locations across Israel, including an industrial area in the coastal city of Ashdod, close to a power station.Ten days ago, Israel launched an air campaign against Iran, saying it aimed to remove what it called the "existential threats" of the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.Iran's health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed around 500 people so far, although one human rights group has put the death toll at 950.Iranian missile strikes on Israeli cities have killed 24 people, according to Israeli authorities.Evin prison houses thousands of men and women, including prominent political dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, and dual and foreign nationals.Residents of the densely populated surrounding area told BBC Persian that there was a powerful explosion on Monday that shattered the windows of nearby homes.One verified video showed damaged vehicles and debris scattered across a street, while another showed significant damage to the Shahid Moghaddas Prosecutor's Office, a special security branch located inside the prison complex.It is not clear how many casualties there were, and whether civilians were among them.However, the prosecutor's office is usually filled during working hours with inmates' relatives, lawyers, as well prosecutors and judges.Images reviewed by BBC Persian were said to show injured people who had been visiting imprisoned relatives at the time of the strike.Inmates at Evin's women's section reportedly told their families that the ceiling was damaged and that panic broke out among prisoners, although they did not report any injuries.However, in Section 4, the shockwave from the explosion was said to have caused injuries to several men who were inside the prison library.Amnesty International said it was "extremely distressed" by the reports from Evin."Deliberately attacking civilian objects is prohibited under international humanitarian law and would amount to a war crime," the human rights group warned.Jean-Noel Barrot, France's foreign minister, also condemned the strike as "unacceptable", saying it had endangered two French nationals "held hostage" at the prison on spying charges.Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman who was imprisoned for years at Evin, told the BBC she felt "sick" with concern following the strike."When you are in prison, it becomes your home. When I heard this morning that Evin prison was bombed, I felt a sharp pain in my heart. When I was released, I left a piece of my heart there."She said she had made "the most incredible friendships" with fellow inmates.She added: "For me, thinking that those people who are stuck in prison are scared, traumatized, worried for themselves, but also for the people who are outside - who probably don't know what they are going through – it makes me feel sick."Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military attacked "regime targets and repressive authorities in the heart of Tehran with unprecedented force" on Monday.He said the targets included Evin, the headquarters of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force, which helps suppress domestic dissent, the internal security headquarters of the powerful Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as what he described as the "ideology headquarters" and the "Israel Destruction" clock in Palestine Square.Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported that the clock - which counts down the days until 2040, based on a 2015 prediction by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that within 25 years the Jewish state would "cease to exist" - was not damaged.The Israeli military said its fighter jets had targeted several military command centres - including the IRGC's "Thar-Allah" facility, which is designated to defend Tehran from security threats.The Israeli military also said on Monday that it "struck in order to obstruct access routes to the Fordo enrichment site".President Donald Trump said on Sunday that a US air strike involving bunker-busting massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) bombs "obliterated" the facility, where cascades of centrifuges located about 80m (260ft) below ground were enriching uranium to 60% purity.Uranium enriched to between 3% and 5% purity is used to make fuel for nuclear power stations, but 60% is only a short, technical step away from weapons grade.Iran accused the US of showing no respect for international law and said it had already evacuated Fordo before the attack. Satellite imagery from last Thursday appeared to show cargo lorries leaving the site.The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that craters were visible at Fordo, which indicated the use of ground-penetrating munitions."Given the explosive payload utilized, and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred," Rafael Grossi told a meeting of the global watchdog's board in Vienna.He said the IAEA had observed that additional buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site were hit by US cruise missiles on Sunday, including some related to the uranium conversion process, as well as entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material.The US also told the IAEA that it had used ground-penetrating bombs in a strike on the underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, he added.Grossi called for his agency to be given access to Iranian nuclear sites to "account for" the country's stockpile of enriched uranium. At the end of May, it said Iran had enough 60% enriched material to potentially make nine nuclear weapons.When it began striking Iran, the Israeli military said it had intelligence showing Iran had recently made "concrete progress" towards producing components for a nuclear bomb.Iran denied the claim and insisted that its nuclear programme was entirely peaceful.Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms nor denies this. — BBC