Iran activated an air defense system in the early hours of Friday after the sound of an explosion heard near a major airbase in the central province of Isfahan, an Iranian official says.
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Israel has carried out an early morning aerial strike inside Iran on Friday local time, U.S. media reported, citing unnamed Israeli and U.S. officials.
The New York Times and The Washington Post cited Israeli officials as saying Israel had carried out an airstrike in Iran. U.S. officials were cited by multiple news outlets as calling it a missile strike.
The location or target of the apparent Israeli strike was not immediately identified.
There was also no immediate public comment from the Biden administration on the incident in Iran.
Iranian state news agencies IRNA and Fars said the Islamic republic’s air defenses had been activated near the central city of Isfahan in response to a projectile. They also reported that explosions were heard in the eastern outskirts of the city but did not specify whether the blasts were from interceptions or impacts on the ground.
The director of the Iranian space agency said air defense forces shot down several drones.
Iranian state media quickly attempted to play down the incident, saying Isfahan’s nuclear facilities were secure. They also said operations at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport and Mehrabad domestic airport had returned to normal on Friday, several hours after flights were suspended in an apparent response to the purported Israeli airstrike.
Iran had warned, in turn, that any Israeli retaliatory strike would be met with a swift and tougher response.
The U.S. and other Western powers had urged the Israeli government to avoid escalating the conflict in calculating its next move. U.S. officials had said they did not intend for U.S. forces to join in any Israeli retaliatory action.
Any aggression on Iranian soil will be met with regret-inducing response: President Raisi
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Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has warned Israel sying that the tiniest act of aggression against Iranian soil will be met with a response that will make the regime and its supporters regret their action.
“If the Zionist regime makes another mistake and wants to again carry out the tiniest act of aggression against Iranian soil, it should know that a response will be given that will make the regime and its supporters regret [their action],” the president said on Thursday as he addressed people in the city of Shahroud, Semnan Province, during his provincial trip, reports IRNA – .
Referring to the weekend attack by the Iranian armed forces against the Israeli regime’s military targets, the president said that the True Promise Operation was conducted to punish the regime for its strike against the Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria on April 1.
He also said that he has told some Western states, during in-person and phone negotiations, that the era of bullying has ended and they should stop using the language of force against the Iranian nation.
Raisi noted that Iran has never left and will never leave the negotiating table over its nuclear energy program.