
Wounded Iran immediately lashes out at Israel launching volleys of ballistic missiles causing ‘large-scale destruction'
IRAN has launched fresh waves of missiles into Israel just hours after the US blitzed its key nuclear sites, injuring at least 23 people.
Tehran, reeling from the unprecedented airstrikes, has warned of "everlasting consequences" after the US got involved.
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Two waves of around 20 and 10 missiles were fired at targets across Israel, according to the IDF.
The weapons penetrated air defences and caused damage in four civilian locations, including Tel Aviv.
Thirteen people were wounded in the Tel Aviv area, six in Nes Tziona, three in Haifa, and one on a highway near Beer Yaakov.
The person injured on the road was in "moderate" condition, whilst the other victims were all "lightly" wounded.
Sirens failed to sound in Haifa, and the IDF said it was investigating a possible malfunction with the "interceptor".
Iranian state media claimed that a Khyber missile was deployed for the first time in the conflict.
Announcing the fresh attack, the Mehr news agency said: The twentieth wave of large-scale missile-drone operations by the Islamic Republic of Iran's armed forces was carried out against the military targets of the Zionist regime."
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Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Starmer has made Britain utterly irrelevant
Two weeks is a short time in politics. In a bid to halt Israel's bombing campaign in Iran, Foreign Secretary David Lammy flew to Washington DC on Friday. Following meetings with secretary of state Marco Rubio and Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss 'how a deal could avoid a deepening conflict', Lammy emerged to declare: 'A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.' Less than 48 hours later, Iran's uranium enrichment and nuclear technology facilities are in smoulders. Far from two weeks to negotiate, there were two days until the bombs went off. Donald Trump's decision to target the sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan has shaken the regime in Tehran, but the tremors extend far beyond the Islamic Republic. The US president has demonstrated in emphatic fashion exactly what he thinks of the UK Government and the people who lead it. Just three days ago, Keir Starmer said that while a nuclear Iran was a major threat, it was 'better dealt with by way of negotiation than by way of conflict' and that 'we need to de-escalate'. It is being briefed that the UK took no part in the overnight bombing – boasting of your bystander status as a new world order is being born is certainly a choice – and that the Prime Minister was informed in advance. That latter crumb-searching looks especially pitiful. If there was a relationship between Trump's White House and Number 10, beyond the formal and functional, the administration would not have allowed Starmer to embarrass himself by giving on-the-record quotes about the risks of a course of action the president was days away from taking. Starmer and Lammy favoured yet more talks with Tehran, a regime that demonstrated with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that it regards negotiations and even agreements as a stalling tactic to gull naive Western leaders while its nuclear ambitions continue unabated. There are few leaders as naive as Starmer and Lammy, two men keenly interested in foreign and military affairs but fantastically out of their depth in both. If the UK has been swept aside in Trump's decision to hit Iran, it is not the US president but Britain's own Prime Minister who has made his nation irrelevant. It makes little sense to speak of a Starmer foreign policy, for Starmer's policy is merely a copy and paste of the various positions of the European Union. But the world does not belong to the likes of Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz or Emmanuel Macron anymore, and it certainly does not belong to their eager echoes Starmer and Lammy. Israel and the United States have not only exploded Iran's nuclear capabilities; they have blown to smithereens the delusions of liberal multilateralism. Those delusions appeal to Starmer because they regard negotiation as an end in itself, rather than a means to achieving an outcome. They are about process, and if there is anything the Prime Minister believes in, its process. Process is always the answer, even when it does not work, because process is the god of lawyers. The god of lawyers is dead, at least on the international stage. Peace through strength is back, with the United States and Israel in its vanguard.


BreakingNews.ie
32 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Diplomacy not an option, warns Iran after US attacks key nuclear sites
Iran's foreign minister has warned that diplomacy is not an option after a US strike on its nuclear facilities. Abbas Araghchi said while the 'door to diplomacy' should always be open, 'this is not the case right now'. Advertisement The United States attacked three sites in Iran overnight, inserting itself into Israel's war aimed at destroying the country's nuclear programme, and President Donald Trump claimed the facilities had been 'completely and fully obliterated'. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran confirmed attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted its nuclear programme will not be stopped. Mr Araghchi said: 'The warmongering, lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression.' He said 'there is no red line' that the US has not crossed, adding: 'The most dangerous one was what happened only last night when they crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities only.' Advertisement Satellite images taken on Sunday show damage to the entrances to the underground site at Fordo. The images, by Planet Labs PBC, also appear to show damage to the mountain itself that Fordo is under. Sealing those entry tunnels means Iran would have to dig out the facility to reach anything inside. The once-brown mountain had parts turned grey and its contours appeared slightly different than in previous images, suggesting a blast threw up debris around the site. That suggests the use of specialised American bunker-buster bombs on the facility. Light grey smoke also hung in the air. Advertisement Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes. It is not clear whether the US will continue attacking Iran alongside its ally Israel, which has been engaged in a nine-day war with Iran. Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles in the hours after the US attack (Oded Balilty/AP) Mr Trump acted without congressional authorisation, and he warned there will be additional strikes if Tehran retaliates against US forces. 'There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran,' he said. Advertisement Iran's foreign ministry said Washington had 'betrayed diplomacy' with the military strikes, and that 'the US has itself launched a dangerous war against Iran'. Its statement added: 'The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to resist with full force against US military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend Iran's security and national interests.' Hours after the American attacks, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched a barrage of 40 missiles at Israel, including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities reported that more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries, though one multi-storey building in Tel Aviv was significantly damaged, with its entire facade torn away to expose the apartments inside. Houses across the street were almost completely destroyed. Advertisement Following the Iranian barrage, Israel's military said it had 'swiftly neutralised' the Iranian missile launchers that had fired, and that it had begun a series of strikes towards military targets in western Iran. President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the White House following the air strikes (Carlos Barria/pool/AP) Iran has maintained its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Mr Trump and Israeli leaders have argued Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat. The decision to directly involve the US in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel that significantly degraded Iran's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said American B-2 stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb that only they have been configured to carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground. Mr Trump appears to have made the calculation – at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republicans – that Israel's operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear programme, perhaps permanently. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan,' Mr Trump said in a post on social media. 'All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordo. All planes are safely on their way home.' — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2025 Mr Trump later added: 'This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!' Israel announced on Sunday that it had closed its airspace to both inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the US attacks. US officials said the attack used bunker-buster bombs on Iran's Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, while submarines launched about 30 Tomahawk missiles. The decision to attack was a risky one for Mr Trump, who won the White House partially on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism. But he has vowed he will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear programme peacefully.


The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
Where are the US military bases in the Middle East as Iran threatens retaliation?
After weeks of threats by Donald Trump, U.S. forces have directly attacked Iran's three main nuclear sites - and Tehran has said it reserves all options to defend itself. Trump claimed to have ' completely, totally obliterated ' Iran's nuclear program, in a series of missile strikes and bombings which came days after giving himself a two-week deadline to make a decision on the attack. Tehran had previously issued stark warnings to Washington that it would respond firmly in the event of a direct US attack directly attacked Iran. 'The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage,' supreme leader Ali Khamenei said in a televised address on Wednesday. 'The US entering in this matter [war] is 100% to its own detriment. The damage it will suffer will be far greater than any harm that Iran may encounter.' The US has long had major military bases in the Gulf Arab States. It moved some aircraft and ships last week that may be vulnerable to a potential Iranian attack and limited access to its largest installation, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Where are the US bases? The US operates a broad network of sites across at least 19 locations in the wider region, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Eight are permanent, including in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Tens of thousands of US troops are stationed across the Middle East, in Arab Gulf countries just across the Persian Gulf from Iran — and much closer than Israel. Those bases boast the same kinds of sophisticated air defences as Israel, but would have much less warning time before waves of missiles or swarms of armed drones. And even Israel, which is several hundred kilometers (miles) further away, has been unable to stop all of the incoming fire. Iran could also choose to attack key oil and gas facilities in those countries with the goal of exacting a higher price for US involvement in the war. A drone attack on two major oil sites in Saudi Arabia in 2019 — claimed by the Houthis but widely blamed on Iran — briefly cut the kingdom's oil production in half. Bahrain Naval Support Activity Bahrain (NSA Bahrain) is home to the US Naval Forces Central Command and United States Fifth Fleet. The deep-water port can America's largest military vessels including aircraft carriers. Four anti-mine vessels, two logistical support ships and several US Coast Guard vessels have a home port in Bahrain. Britain's Royal Navy opened and operated the port during the 1920s, and the first US military presence was established when they joined World War 2. After the war it was recognised as a US Navy site. Iraq The US has a number of military bases in Iraq, including two air fields - the Al-Harir and Al Asad air bases - and dozens of camps and outposts. These bases were repeatedly targeted by pro-Iran militant groups after Israel's invasion of Gaza in October 2023. At the height of the US occupation of the country from 2003 until 2011, there were reportedly 170,000 US personnel stationed in 505 bases across the country. In January 2024, the Iraqi government requested a start to negotiations on ending the US military presence in Iraq, as regional tensions grew due to the situation in Gaza. Kuwait Kuwait plays host to several US installations, including two air bases, alongside a number of other outposts. Ali Al Salem Air Base is home to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, one of the main hubs for delivering combat support in the region. Qatar Qatar's Al Udeid AIr Base is the largest of its kind in the region, according to the Reuters news agency. It includes components of Central Command (Centcom), and elements of its air forces and special operations forces in the Middle East. The 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, which includes 'airlift, aerial refueling intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and aeromedical evacuation assets,' AFP reports. Syria US troops have been stationed in Syria for years as part of an international coalition fighting Islamic State forces in the country, which rose from the country's civil war. In April, after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime, the Pentagon announced it would halve the number of troops in the country to less than 1,000. United Arab Emirates Al Dahfra Air Base is home to the US 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, which has 10 aircraft squadrons and holds MQ-9 Reaper drones. The base also hosts the Gulf Air Warfare Centre for air and missile defense training. Egypt The US does not hold any major combat bases in Egypt, but there are a number of military facilities stationed in the country. Naval Medical Research Unit Three is based in Cairo, conducting research on infectious diseases and their prevention, and hosting the department of defense's largest overseas laboratory. Jordan The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan was allocated for $143 million in upgrades and expansion in 2018. It hosts military partners including Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, with two runways almost 10,000 feet long. Has Iran attacked the bases before? US forces have been attacked on several occasions by Iran-backed forces since the outbreak of the latest war in Gaza and the subsequent conflicts with other state and non-state actors in the wider region. In January 2024, three American soldiers were killed and dozens more injured after a one-way attack drone hit the military base Tower 22 in Jordan, near the Syrian border. US officials blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, for the attack.