20 hours ago
Israel's choice of targets lays groundwork for sustained war
Israeli jets struck at Iran's air defences, radars and missile systems to achieve air supremacy over Tehran, Israel has said.
Surgical strikes from advanced bombers 'improved our aerial superiority and our freedom of activity in Iran', according to the Israeli air force.
Satellite images emerging since the first wave of attacks supported some of Israel's account of the targets it hit. They showed key assets on the ground destroyed near major cities and around some Iranian nuclear sites, which were also targeted during the strikes.
Analysis by war monitors in Washington DC showed Israel was targeting a wall of defensive systems placed along Iran's western border.
With this layer of defence dismantled, Israeli fighter jets would have multiple windows through which to cross into Iranian air space and carry out sorties, with less risk of being shot down. It is a level of superiority in the air greater than Russia has been unable to achieve in three years of war in Ukraine.
'We have paved a path to Tehran,' Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, adding, in a warning to the Iranian regime: 'In the very near future, you will see Israeli planes, the Israeli air force, our pilots, over the skies of Tehran.'
