Iran's ‘heavy price’ warning to Israel, US after airstrikes kill top leader, hit nuclear facility
Israel aims to damage military capabilities, while the US states it was not involved but prioritises the protection of American forces in the region.
Following an Israeli attack early on Friday on Iran, Iranian armed forces spokesperson Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi told state TV that Israel and the United States will pay a “heavy price”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme leader Khamenei said Israel will receive a harsh punishment, news agency Reuters reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel's strikes on Iran are being aimed at hurting its nuclear infrastructure, its ballistic missile factories and many of its military capabilities, calling this as ‘Operation Rising Lion.’ Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” and that Israel advised the US that it believed the strikes were necessary for its self-defense. He also said that the US is not involved in these strikes and the top priority is o protect American forces in the region.
Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of retaliatory missile and drone strikes.
Iranian state television reported that Hossein Salami, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards corps, had been killed and the unit's headquarters in Tehran had been hit. Several children had been killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital, it said.
The attack comes as tensions have reached new heights over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. Israel for years has warned it will not allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, something Tehran insists it doesn’t want, though officials there have repeatedly warned it could.
(Inputs from AP and Reuters)
