Explosions rolled across Tehran shortly after midnight local time on Friday, moments after two senior US officials told Reuters that Israel had launched a unilateral offensive “without any US assistance.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz simultaneously declared a nationwide emergency and closed his country’s airspace as the Israel Defense Forces confirmed Operation Strength of a Lion, a campaign to “dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and strategic missile network.”
Israeli briefings said the initial wave concentrated on uranium-enrichment hubs at Natanz and Fordow, the heavy-water complex at Arak, command bunkers near Kermanshah and Tehran, and residences known to shelter top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders.
According to Israeli political analyst Amit Segal, the air assault was preceded by a coordinated media-diplomacy feint that blinded Iranian early-warning radars long enough for jets—and reportedly Mossad teams on the ground—to strike in near-perfect synchrony.
Iran military hits
By daybreak, reports have been running that a number of Iranian leaders have been killed: IRGC commander-in-chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, armed forces chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, and Khatam-al Anbiya headquarters commander Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid. Nuclear physicists Fereydoon Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were also reported killed among others.
Former president Hassan Rouhani’s upscale Tehran residence was hit, and diplomatic sources said ex-national-security chief Ali Shamkhani was “specifically hunted.”
Vow of retaliation
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei branded the attack a “vile crime” and promised Israel a “severe punishment.” Armed forces spokesman Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi pledged a “forceful slap,” while Iran shut its airspace, scrambled emergency combat air patrols and announced Operation True Promise 3, its retaliatory framework.
An initial swarm of one hundred drones was reportedly intercepted before crossing Israeli lines, yet Iranian officials insisted a “harsh and decisive” counterstrike was only hours away.
Condemnations poured in from Riyadh, Ankara and Jakarta, all framing the raid as a grave breach of international norms.
The US publicly distanced itself—Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tehran not to target American assets—yet three US and UK RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft quietly redeployed from Al Udeid in Qatar. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said his team will remain at the embassy and “closely following the situation.”
Oil prices spiked and commercial airlines re-routed around the Gulf after flight tracking data showed civilian corridors abruptly closing over Iran and Israel.
Inside Israel, Tel Aviv’s metro was converted into an ad-hoc bomb shelter grid and major hospitals moved wards to subterranean wings. The IDF blockaded West Bank cities to forestall rocket-fire opportunism while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, broadcasting from a secure bunker, called the moment “decisive in Israel’s history” and urged citizens to prepare for long shelter stays.
Military radio confirmed a fifth strike wave within twelve hours, and senior planners forecast roughly two weeks of sustained combat operations.
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