Israel launches strikes on ‘nuclear targets’ in Iran

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday said that it had launched strikes on “nuclear targets” among other sites in Iran with an aim to stall the Iranian nuclear programme.

Israeli fighter jets “completed the first stage that included strikes on dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets” in Iran, the Israeli armed forces said.

Tel Aviv said that Iran was “closer than ever to obtaining” a nuclear weapon. “Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the wider world,” said the Israel Defense Forces.

Tehran has for long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civil purposes.

The Israeli military claimed that it had “no choice but to fulfil the obligation to act in defence of its citizens…”.

Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson BG Effie Defrin said that the “pre-emptive” strikes were carried out “in order to prevent the Iranian regime’s ability to build the nuclear bomb in the immediate time frame”.

Several explosions were heard in capital Tehran at about 3 am local time, Al Jazeera reported.

Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said that casualties were being reported from neighbourhoods of Tehran.

It also reported that Hossein Salami, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in the attack. The IRGC is the primary unit of the Iranian Armed Forces.

The Indian...

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