Israel, Iran trade airstrikes for third day as hundreds reported dead
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Dubai, Jun 15 (AP) Israel claimed to operate almost freely in the skies over Iran during a third day of airstrikes on Sunday and killed more high-ranking security figures, while some Iranian missiles slipped through Israel’s air defences. Both sides threatened to launch more attacks.
In an indication of how far Israel was prepared to go amid fears of all-out war, a US official told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump in recent days vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian Health Ministry said late on Sunday that 224 people have been killed since Israel’s attack began on Friday. Spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said on social media that 1,277 others were hospitalised. He asserted that more than 90 per cent of the casualties were civilians.
The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles, said intelligence chief Gen. Mohammad Kazemi and two other generals were the latest killed, Iran’s state TV reported on Sunday night. Israel’s attacks have killed several top generals and nuclear scientists.
Iran also said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran’s heavily-sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. Israel’s military warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signalling a further widening of the campaign. Iran’s military, on state TV, warned Israelis to stay away from “occupied” areas.
Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, has said it launched the attack — its most powerful ever against Iran — to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been adversaries for decades. The latest US-Iran talks on its nuclear programme were cancelled.
Explosions shook the Iranian capital of Tehran. Sirens went off in Israel. The Israeli military noted “several hit sites” on Sunday night, including in Haifa in the north, and the Magen David Adom emergency service said it treated nine injured people.
Israel said 14 people have been killed there since Friday and 390 wounded. Iran has fired over 270 missiles, 22 of which got through the country’s sophisticated multi-tiered air defences, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s main international airport and airspace was closed for a third day.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said if Israel’s strikes on Iran stop, then “our responses will also stop”. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, criticised the United States for supporting Israel and said “the responses will be more decisive and severe” if Israel keeps attacking, state TV reported.
Trump said the US “had nothing to do with the attack” and that Iran can avoid further destruction only by agreeing to a new nuclear deal.
Mosques as bomb shelters Photos shared by Iran’s ISNA News Agency showed bloodied people being helped from the scene of Israeli strikes in downtown Tehran. One man carried a blood-spattered girl.
Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Israel hit a Foreign Ministry building in the north of Tehran, with several civilians injured, “including a number of my colleagues,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s Defence Ministry after hitting air defences, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear programme. On Sunday night, Israel said it struck “numerous” sites across Iran that produce missile and air-defence components.
Israel also claimed it attacked an Iranian refuelling aircraft in Mashhad in the northeast, calling it the farthest strike the military had carried out. Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. Video obtained and verified by the AP showed smoke rising from the city.
Iran’s foreign minister said Israel targeted an oil refinery near Tehran and another in a province on the Persian Gulf.
State television reported that metro stations and mosques would be made available as bomb shelters beginning Sunday night.
Death toll rises in Israel Earlier on Sunday in Israel, at least six people, including a 10-year-old and a nine-year-old, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven were missing.
Another four people, including a 13-year-old, were killed and 24 wounded when a missile struck a building in the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42. The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important centre for military and other research in Rehovot, reported “a number of hits to buildings on the campus” and said no one was harmed.
An oil refinery was damaged in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to the firm operating it, which said no one was wounded.
Netanyahu says regime change in Iran could be a result Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed off urgent calls by world leaders to deescalate.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, he said regime change in Iran “could certainly be the result” of the conflict. He also claimed, without giving evidence, that Israeli intelligence indicated Iran intended to give nuclear weapons to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iran has always said its nuclear programme was peaceful, and the US and others have assessed that it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But Iran has enriched ever-larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have the capacity to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.
The UN’s atomic watchdog issued a rare censure of Iran last week. (AP) RC
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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