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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Explainer: what we know so far in the Israel-Iran conflict
Israel's surprise attack on targets across Iran on Friday, has been followed by three days of escalating strikes, as both sides threatened more devastation in the biggest ever confrontation between the longstanding enemies. Here's a round-up of the conflict so far: Israel hit more than 100 major targets in Iran on Friday, including nuclear facilities and missile sites, and killed senior military commanders and scientists. Satellite imagery showed significant damage to areas of the Natanz nuclear site, Iran's most significant nuclear enrichment facility, but the fuel enrichment plant appeared to be undamaged. A nuclear research centre in Isfahan was also hit. Among those killed were senior military figures – including the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen Hossein Salami – as well as at least six Iranian nuclear scientists. Israeli strikes continued over the weekend and into Monday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted air defences around the Tehran and claimed they had gained control of the skies over the capital. Israel's military said it had hit 'more than 80' targets in Tehran since Saturday, including the defence ministry headquarters and missile launchers used to strike Israel and defend Iran. The Iranian oil ministry said Israel had targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area. Iran has accused Israel of hitting civilian areas in Tehran with the health ministry reporting that Israeli strikes had killed 224 people since Friday. Iran has launched several waves of missiles at Israel since Friday, with Israeli authorities saying at least 14 people had been killed since Friday and 390 injured. Rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women, and six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of a missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Those number were set to rise on Monday after Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and , with fires were seen burning at a power plant in the northern city. Iran warned the , and that their military bases and ships would be targeted if they helped block the Iranian missile and drone retaliation for Israel's attack. US officials told some media that American air defence systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down some incoming ballistic missiles on Friday. The UK was moving jets and other military assets to the Middle East, as UK prime minister Keir Starmer refused to rule out defending Israel. In justifying the attack, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had acted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine nuclear bombs. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board ruled on Thursday that Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in failing to cooperate fully with IAEA inspections and for amassing an estimated 400kg of highly enriched uranium. Western intelligence assessments until now have generally said Iran has not taken the final decision to build a bomb. Iran's supreme leader, , threatened 'severe punishment' and claimed residential areas had been targeted. The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday were cancelled and Tehran reportedly told prospective mediators Qatar and Oman that it was not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said early on Friday that the US had not taken part in the Israeli attack, which he described as 'unilateral', but by later in the day, president told reporters that the US had been aware of the impending attack. At the G7 conference in Canada on Sunday, Trump claimed he was working behind the scenes on a deal, while elsewhere Reuters reported that the president had vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's supreme leader.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Explainer: what we know so far in the Israel-Iran conflict
Israel's surprise attack on targets across Iran on Friday, has been followed by three days of escalating strikes, as both sides threatened more devastation in the biggest ever confrontation between the longstanding enemies. Here's a round-up of the conflict so far: Israel hit more than 100 major targets in Iran on Friday, including nuclear facilities and missile sites, and killed senior military commanders and scientists. Satellite imagery showed significant damage to areas of the Natanz nuclear site, Iran's most significant nuclear enrichment facility, but the fuel enrichment plant appeared to be undamaged. A nuclear research centre in Isfahan was also hit. Among those killed were senior military figures – including the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen Hossein Salami – as well as at least six Iranian nuclear scientists. Israeli strikes continued over the weekend and into Monday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted air defences around the Tehran and claimed they had gained control of the skies over the capital. Israel's military said it had hit 'more than 80' targets in Tehran since Saturday, including the defence ministry headquarters and missile launchers used to strike Israel and defend Iran. The Iranian oil ministry said Israel had targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area. Iran has accused Israel of hitting civilian areas in Tehran with the health ministry reporting that Israeli strikes had killed 224 people since Friday. Iran has launched several waves of missiles at Israel since Friday, with Israeli authorities saying on Sunday that 14 people had been killed since Friday and 390 injured. Rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women, and six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of a missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Iran warned the US, UK and France that their military bases and ships would be targeted if they helped block the Iranian missile and drone retaliation for Israel's attack. US officials told some media that American air defence systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down some incoming ballistic missiles on Friday. The UK was moving jets and other military assets to the Middle East, as UK prime minister Keir Starmer refused to rule out defending Israel. In justifying the attack, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had acted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine nuclear bombs. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board ruled on Thursday that Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in failing to cooperate fully with IAEA inspections and for amassing an estimated 400kg of highly enriched uranium. Western intelligence assessments until now have generally said Iran has not taken the final decision to build a bomb. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened 'severe punishment' and claimed residential areas had been targeted. The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday were cancelled and Tehran reportedly told prospective mediators Qatar and Oman that it was not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said early on Friday that the US had not taken part in the Israeli attack, which he described as 'unilateral', but by later in the day, president Donald Trump told reporters that the US had been aware of the impending attack. At the G7 conference in Canada on Sunday, Trump claimed he was working behind the scenes on a deal, while elsewhere Reuters reported that the president had vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's supreme leader.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel's air might and Iran's nuclear bunkers may make for lengthy conflict
Israel's assault on Iran demonstrates a ruthless combination of air power and intelligence – and a significant disparity between the two countries in a conflict that is likely to be a long one if the goal is to eliminate Tehran's nuclear capability. Israel's air force undertook waves of airstrikes, beginning at about 3am on Friday, aimed, briefings indicated, first at Iran's military leaders and intelligence in Tehran, then switching to air defence batteries, missile launch sites and, above all, the critical facility at Natanz where uranium can be enriched to weapons grade. The initial goal appears to have been to smash Iran's military chain of command, with the killing of Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's military – and Gen Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, killed alongside other senior members of the group. Burcu Ozcelik, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said the sheer scale of the attack 'risks reshaping the strategic landscape of the Middle East' by targeting its military leadership and nuclear infrastructure. 'The sheer depth and precision of the strikes – reaching into the heart of Tehran and eliminating key figures such as Salami – underscore the extent of Israeli intelligence penetration and the degraded state of Iran's air defence systems. For Tehran, this is not only a tactical loss but a profound strategic humiliation,' she added. The immediate question is how much damage was done at Natanz, where Iran has conducted most of its nuclear enrichment at a site thought to be 8 metres underground, largely protected by reinforced concrete and hard rock. Videos showed black plumes emerging from the area of the site, but damage is impossible to assess. Iran said the Natanz site had been hit, but there were no casualties, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency, while the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was still assessing the damage. Meanwhile, Israel's military spokesperson, Effie Defrin, said the bombing had struck the underground area and related critical infrastructure. 'We inflicted significant damage on this site,' he added. At the same time, Israel's external security service, the Mossad, claimed it had conducted a mixture of commando attacks, complete with grainy thermal video, and strikes from prepositioned drones – in the style of Ukraine's recent attack on Russian airbases – aimed at Iranian air defence systems, including at Esfejabad airbase. Some of the Mossad claims are likely to be propagandistic but the military reality is that so far there has been no sign of effective Iranian air defence or any reports of Israeli air force casualties. Israel appears to have a near total air superiority, allowing it to continue bombing into Friday with fresh attacks on Tabriz. Iran's initial response, Israel said, was to launch more than 100 drones at its attacker, all of which were shot down by mid morning. The drones are slow-moving, taking up to seven hours to travel the 700 miles or so between the countries – and it would take a far larger wave before even a handful hit the ground. Tehran does have other military options, however. The most immediately dangerous is a store of up to 3,000 high-speed ballistic missiles, of which it used about 180 in its last attack on Israel in October 2024. Two dozen or so hit the Nevatim and Tel Nof airbases (where nuclear weapons are thought to be stored) in Israel and locations near the Mossad headquarters, but the damage done appears to have been relatively modest. Initial reports suggested that Kermanshah in western Iran, home to ballistic missile launch sites buried inside canyons, was one of the early sites targeted. Successfully destroying or disabling underground sites is notoriously difficult, however, and the true impact will emerge only if Iran launches a missile counterattack with whatever is left at its military's disposal. Alternative possibilities may be cyber or terror attacks, though on a political level neither might feel like an equivalent retaliatory response, even if they are achievable – while strikes on American targets would be very risky for Tehran, bringing with it the possibility that the US, with all its firepower, would join the war. But the option that is not on the table is to rely on traditional regional proxies. On Friday, Lebanon's Hezbollah, its leadership eliminated during the two-month war with Israel last autumn, said it 'will not initiate its own attack on Israel' in support of Iran. Yemen's Houthis, attacked by Israel on Tuesday, are more than 1,000 miles distant and have only the ability to mount occasional ballistic missile attacks. The complication for Israel is that Iran has had a long time to prepare, and its nuclear facilities are well defended. Until Friday afternoon, Israel did not try to attack a second enrichment facility at Fordow, buried 80-90 metres underground, beyond the capabilities of its most powerful known missiles, the 1.8-tonne Rocks and 1.6-tonne Air Lora. Successfully attacking Natanz, according to an analysis from Rusi, 'would likely require several impacts into the same crater to 'burrow' down to the facility and get a weapon through to explode within it successfully' – while the destruction of Fordow is considered feasible only with the US GBU 57/B 'bunker buster' bomb, which, because it weighs nearly 14 tonnes and is 6 metres long, can be launched only from US B-2 bombers. Such hardened targets, combined with Israel's air dominance and extraordinary confidence, point to an extended military campaign against Iran – two weeks long, according to some reports – as well as a tense and uncertain international period, which, absent an Iranian capitulation, may not have an obvious end point.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Israel's air might and Iran's nuclear bunkers may make for lengthy conflict
Israel's assault on Iran demonstrates a ruthless combination of air power and intelligence – and a significant disparity between the two countries in a conflict that is likely to be a long one if the goal is to eliminate Tehran's nuclear capability. Israel's air force undertook waves of airstrikes, beginning at about 3am on Friday, aimed, briefings indicated, first at Iran's military leaders and intelligence in Tehran, then switching to air defence batteries, missile launch sites and, above all, the critical facility at Natanz where uranium can be enriched to weapons grade. The initial goal appears to have been to smash Iran's military chain of command, with the killing of Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's military – and Gen Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, killed alongside other senior members of the group. Burcu Ozcelik, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said the sheer scale of the attack 'risks reshaping the strategic landscape of the Middle East' by targeting its military leadership and nuclear infrastructure. 'The sheer depth and precision of the strikes – reaching into the heart of Tehran and eliminating key figures such as Salami – underscore the extent of Israeli intelligence penetration and the degraded state of Iran's air defence systems. For Tehran, this is not only a tactical loss but a profound strategic humiliation,' she added. The immediate question is how much damage was done at Natanz, where Iran has conducted most of its nuclear enrichment at a site thought be 8 metres underground, largely protected by reinforced concrete and hard rock. Videos showed black plumes emerging from the area of the site, but damage is impossible to assess. Iran said the Natanz site had been hit, but there were no casualties, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency, while the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was still assessing the damage. Meanwhile, Israel's military spokesperson, Effie Defrin, said the bombing had struck the underground area and related critical infrastructure. 'We inflicted significant damage on this site,' he added. At the same time, Israel's external security service, the Mossad, claimed it had conducted a mixture of commando attacks, complete with grainy thermal video, and strikes from prepositioned drones – in the style of Ukraine's recent attack on Russian airbases – aimed at Iranian air defence systems, including at Esfejabad airbase. Some of the Mossad claims are likely to be propagandistic but the military reality is that so far there has been no sign of effective Iranian air defence or any reports of Israeli air force casualties. Israel appears to have a near total air superiority, allowing it to continue bombing into Friday with fresh attacks on Tabriz. Iran's initial response, Israel said, was to launch more than 100 drones at its attacker, all of which were shot down by mid morning. The drones, however, are slow moving, taking up to seven hours to travel the 700 miles or so between the countries – and it would take a far larger wave before even a handful hit the ground. Tehran does have other military options, however. The most immediately dangerous is a store of up to 3,000 high-speed ballistic missiles, of which it used about 180 in its last attack on Israel in October 2024. Two dozen or so hit the Nevatim and Tel Nof airbases (where nuclear weapons are thought to be stored) in Israel and locations near the Mossad headquarters, but the damage done appears to have been relatively modest. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Initial reports suggested that Kermanshah in western Iran, home to ballistic missile launch sites buried inside canyons, was one of the early sites targeted. Successfully destroying or disabling underground sites is notoriously difficult, however, and the true impact will only emerge if Iran launches a missile counterattack with whatever is left at its military's disposal. Alternative possibilities may be cyber or terror attacks, though on a political level, neither might feel like a equivalent retaliatory response, even if they are achievable – while strikes on American targets would be very risky for Tehran, bringing with it the possibility that the US, with all its firepower, would join in the war. But the option that is not on the table is to rely on traditional regional proxies. On Friday, Lebanon's Hezbollah, its leadership eliminated during the two-month war with Israel last autumn, said it 'will not initiate its own attack on Israel' in support of Iran. Yemen's Houthis, attacked by Israel on Tuesday, are more than 1,000 miles distant and have only the ability to mount occasional ballistic missile attacks. The complication for Israel is that Iran has had a long time to prepare, and its nuclear facilities are well Friday afternoon, Israel did not try to attack a second enrichment facility at Fordow, buried 80-90 metres underground, beyond the capabilities of its Israel's most powerful known missiles, the 1.8-tonne Rocks and 1.6-tonne Air Lora. Successfully attacking Nantaz, according to an analysis from Rusi, 'would likely require several impacts into the same crater to 'burrow' down to the facility and get a weapon through to explode within it successfully' – while the destruction of Fordow is only considered feasible with the US GBU 57/B 'bunker buster' bomb which, because it weighs nearly 14 tonnes and is 6 metres long, can only be launched from US B-2 bombers. Such hardened targets, combined with Israel's air dominance and extraordinary confidence, points to an extended military campaign against Iran – two weeks long, according to some reports – as well as a tense and uncertain international period, which, absent an Iranian capitulation, may not have an obvious end point.
