Iran confirms top officials killed after Israel targets nuclear sites, leaders, scientists in wave of strikes
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to 'remove this threat'
Israel attacked Iran early Friday with a barrage of airstrikes that took out top military officers and hit nuclear and missile sites, calling it just the beginning and raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries.
It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq. Iran quickly retaliated, sending a swarm of drones at Israel as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of "severe punishment." Iran had been censured by the UN's atomic watchdog a day earlier for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Countries in the region condemned Israel's attack, while leaders around the globe called for immediate de-escalation from both sides.
For years, Israel had threatened such a strike and successive American administrations had sought to prevent it, fearing it would ignite a wider conflict across the Middle East and possibly be ineffective at destroying Iran's dispersed and hardened nuclear program.
Tehran has requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, diplomats said.
The U.S. said it had not been involved in the attacks launched by one of its biggest allies, and the White House warned against any retaliation targeting American interests or personnel.
Israel told the Trump administration that large-scale attacks were coming, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to describe private diplomatic discussions. Washington on Wednesday pulled some American diplomats from Iraq's capital and offered voluntary evacuations for the families of U.S. troops in the wider Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a meeting of his National Security Council on Friday. In social media comments early Friday, he urged Iran to reach a deal with Washington on its nuclear program, warning that Israel's attacks "will only get worse."
He also said in interviews with various media outlets that he planned to speak later in the day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S. Navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner to begin sailing toward the eastern Mediterranean and has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward, so it can be available if requested by the White House, two officials told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.
Natanz site 'significantly damaged': Israel
Multiple locations in the Iranian capital were hit in the attack, which Netanyahu said targeted both nuclear and military sites. Israel's military said about 200 aircraft were involved in the initial attack on about 100 targets.
At Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, black smoke could be seen rising into the air. Later in the morning, Israel said it had also destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran.
Israel military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel has "significantly damaged" Natanz and that the operation was "still in the beginning."
The leader of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, was killed, Iranian state television reported, in a major body blow to Tehran's governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of its long-simmering conflict with Israel.
The chief of staff of Iranian armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was also confirmed dead by Iranian state television. Other top military officials and scientists were believed to have been killed.
Iran also confirmed the killing of Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard missile program, in the attacks.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard was created after its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since it was established, it's evolved from a paramilitary, domestic security force to a transnational force that has come to the aid of Tehran's allies in the Mideast, from Syria and Lebanon to Iraq.
It operates in parallel to the country's existing armed forces and controls Iran's arsenal of ballistic missiles, which it has used to attack Israel twice during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah accused the U.S. of providing "approval, co-ordination, and direct coverup" while declaring that Israel "has crossed all red lines." In a statement, the group issued condolences to Tehran for the leaders who were killed, but did not threaten to join in the retaliation.
Attacks pre-emptive strikes on nuclear program: Israel
Khamenei said in a statement that Israel "opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centres."
In its first response, Iran fired more than 100 drones at Israel. Israel said the drones were being intercepted outside its airspace, and it was not immediately clear whether any got through.
Israeli leaders cast the pre-emptive assault as a fight for the nation's survival that was necessary to head off an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that or whether Iran had actually been planning a strike soon.
"It could be a year. It could be within a few months," Netanyahu said as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to "remove this threat."
"This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival."
Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that in the aftermath of the strikes, "missile and drone attacks against Israel and its civilian population are expected immediately."
"It is essential to listen to instructions from the home front command and authorities to stay in protected areas," he said.
Nervous Israelis rushed to supermarkets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and elsewhere to buy bottled water and other supplies, and circulated messages on WhatsApp groups, advising each other to prepare their shelters for potential long-term use.
Iraq said more than 100 Iranian drones had crossed its airspace, and a short time later, neighbouring Jordan said its air force and defence systems had intercepted several missiles and drones that had entered its airspace for fear they would fall in its territory.
Israel is believed to have carried out numerous highly secretive attacks on Iranian soil over the years, though it has rarely acknowledged them. Most have been aimed at Iran's nuclear program, though Iran has also accused Israel of targeting its natural gas pipelines and of assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Over the past year, Israel has also been targeting Iran's air defences, hitting a radar system for a Russian-made air defence battery in April 2024 and surface-to-air missile sites and missile manufacturing facilities in October.
Israel has long been determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, a concern laid bare on Thursday when the board of governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency for the first time in 20 years censured Iran over its refusal to work with its inspectors.
Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and swap out some centrifuges for more advanced ones.
Even so, there are multiple assessments on how many nuclear weapons it could conceivably build, should it choose to do so. Iran would need months to assemble, test and field any weapon, which it so far has said it has no desire to do. U.S. intelligence agencies also assess Iran does not have a weapons program at this time.