With the Friday morning strike, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) not only wiped out most of Iran’s top military command and dealt a devastating blow to the regime’s nuclear weapons program, it also eliminated several leading nuclear scientists behind the rogue program.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “eliminated nine senior scientists and experts in the Iranian nuclear project,” the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday. “The individuals who were eliminated played a central part of the progress toward nuclear weapons. Their elimination represents a significant blow to the Iranian regime’s ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
Iranian state media acknowledged the killing of some of the leading nuclear scientists. “Iran confirmed that Fereydon Abbasi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was eliminated in the Israeli attack,” the Israeli news website Ynetnews reported. “They also announced the elimination of nuclear scientists Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi and Fereydoon Abbasi.”
Top Iranian nuclear scientists were taken out in simultaneous strikes on multiple targets. “Yesterday, IAF fighter jets, guided by the Intelligence Directorate, simultaneously struck dozens of targets across Iran as part of a large-scale opening salvo of the operation,” the Israeli military declared.
The IDF released the names of the slain scientists and their roles in the Iranian nuclear weapons program:
Their elimination is seen as a major setback to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. “All of the eliminated scientists and experts served as significant knowledge centers in the Iranian nuclear project and possessed decades of accumulated experience in the development of nuclear weapons,” the IDF assured.
As the Operation “Rising Lion” entered its second day, the Israeli pilots had taken command of the skies over Iran.
The Israeli Air Force “has established aerial superiority from western Iran to Tehran,” the IDF military declared Saturday. Israeli fighter jets were targeting Iranian surface-to-surface missile launchers and air defense systems around Tehran, the IDF declared.
“These strikes carry operational and national significance. We damaged – and will continue to damage – strategic sites and enemy sources of knowledge,” the chief of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. General Tomer Bar said in a statement released Saturday. “After an active day in which we struck hundreds of targets, including dozens of surface-to-air targets, we conducted a series of precise strikes of operational and national significance which improved our aerial superiority and our freedom of activity in Iran.”
In keeping with the Air Force chief’s remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday, declared that “[i]n the very near future you will see Israeli Air Force jets over the skies of Tehran – we will strike every site and every target of the ayatollahs’ regime.”
The Iranian air defenses, including advanced systems supplied by Russia, were among the key targets of the ongoing Israeli air offensive. “Overnight, the IAF struck dozens of targets, including surface-to-air missile infrastructure, as part of the effort to damage the Iranian Regime’s aerial defense capabilities in the area of Tehran,” the statement added.
Unable to counter the IDF’s aerial offensive, the Iranian regime fired nearly 100 ballistic missiles aimed at Israeli towns and cities. The Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported that “close to 100 ballistic missiles were fired in two waves directly from Iranian territory, marking one of the most significant escalations between the two countries in recent years.”
“The main targets were highly populated areas, including Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Rishon Lezion. Sirens also sounded in other parts of the country as additional rockets triggered nationwide alerts,” the broadcaster observed.
Overnight, three civilians were reported killed and over 150 others injured as a barrage of Iranian missiles landed on Israeli population centers. “An Israeli woman who was critically wounded by Iranian missiles succumbed to her wounds early Saturday morning, and another two were killed after a direct hit in a residential neighborhood in Israel’s central district,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Over 150 people were wounded overall in the Iranian missile barrages, according to official statements from numerous Israeli hospitals.”
Besides countering long-range Iranian missiles, the Israeli Air Force and Navy were intercepting Iranian drones approaching the country’s airspace, Israeli media reports confirm.
Iranian tyrant Khamenei’s senior adviser and former IRGC terror operative, Ali Shamkhani, was reported killed in a recent Israeli airstrike.
“A senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani, has died of wounds sustained in Israel’s initial airstrikes,” The Times of Israel reported quoting Iranian state media.
The slain apparatchik had a long association with the Islamic Guard terrorist organization. CNN observed thar he “served as the country’s top national security official for a decade from 2013, and before that served in a number of important roles, including in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the ministry of defense.”
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