Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is said to have gone into hiding after his nation’s revolutionary guards (IRGC) launched some 180 ballistic missiles at arch-enemy Israel yesterday.
Yesterday’s attack, unprecedented in scope and scale, came without warning, with terrifying footage showing missiles streaking through the night sky and descending on targets across Israel.
Though some found their targets, many of the projectiles were intercepted by the Jewish state’s vaunted air defence systems, supported by US and UK air and naval assets, with no Israeli casualties reported.
Israeli officials this morning promised harsh consequences for the onslaught.
IDF Major General Herzi Halevi declared: ‘We will choose when to collect the price and prove our precise and surprising attack capabilities,’ after Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to take revenge.
But the military failure of the missile barrage and Israel’s promise of retribution did not deter jubilant crowds from overrunning the streets of Tehran.
Images from the Iranian capital showed thousands touting likenesses of Khamenei as they celebrated the rocket launches while several Israeli flags were trampled underfoot before being set alight.
Similar celebrations unfolded in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza, with Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas commending the Islamic Republic for the daring assault.
Iranian news outlets also lauded the strikes, with the English-language Tehran Times publishing a full-page image of a ballistic missile launch and warning that the IRGC would deal Tel Aviv a ‘crushing response should Israel dare commit further acts of violence’.
The Ayatollah is likely to take all possible security precautions in the wake of yesterday’s attack – and with good reason.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated as he slept in an IRGC compound in Tehran in July, and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a punishing airstrike on the group’s Beirut HQ by Israeli jets using US munitions last week.
Khamenei remains in a ‘secure location’ according to Iranian officials, with a senior government source telling Reuters that he was initially moved and placed under guard after Nasrallah’s death on Friday.
Reports suggest one potential target of a future Israeli strike could be the Islamic Republic’s oil facilities.
Iran is the third biggest producer of crude oil in the OPEC group of oil-producing countries and is heavily reliant on its oil and gas exports to prop up its ailing economy amid years of sanctions.
Former Israeli Intelligence official and regional analyst Avi Melamed told MailOnline the Iranian strike was likely to ‘provoke a significant counterstrike’, warning that ‘Israel’s response this time will likely be broader and less restrained than it was in the wake of Iran’s unprecedented direct strike in April.’
But Iran’s armed forces joint chief of staff Gen. Mohammad Bagheri said this morning that the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) was prepared both defensively and offensively to repeat its missile attack with ‘multiplied intensity’, should Israel seek retribution.
‘If the Zionist regime, that has gone insane, is not contained by America and Europe and intends to continue such crimes or do anything against our sovereignty or territorial integrity, tonight’s operation will be repeated with much higher magnitude and we will hit all their infrastructure,’ he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also declared that Tehran had warned the US ‘to withdraw from this matter and not to intervene’.
But the US has vowed to stand with its regional ally Israel, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan telling reporters at the White House: ‘We have made clear that there will be consequences, severe consequences, for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case.’
Meanwhile, Israel’s ongoing military operations have continued uninterrupted – at least five airstrikes reportedly hit the southern suburbs of Beirut early this morning.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since September 17, while hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.
And Israeli strikes killed at least 32 people in southern Gaza overnight as the military launched ground operations in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis.
Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ October 7 attack ignited the war, even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and growing tensions with Iran.
The White House said Iran’s missile volley was ‘defeated and ineffective’, with just one reported death – a Palestinian man who was killed by shrapnel in the West Bank.
Still, the aerial assault forced civilians across Israel to seek shelter as huge chunks of molten metal crashed to the ground, and was ‘twice the scope’ of Tehran’s bombardment in April, which saw more than 170 explosive drones and 120 ballistic missiles launched.
In the wake of the attack, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran considers the matter ‘concluded… unless Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation. In that scenario, our response will be stronger and more powerful.’
He added that Iran informed the US that the ‘operation is over and we do not intend to continue’.
Araghchi also styled the attack as ‘self-defence’ and noted that Iran had ‘exercised tremendous restraint’ after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
But Israeli sources told Axios all options were on the table for retaliation despite Iran’s threats – including targeting oil and even nuclear facilities.
Retired US Army Colonel Jonathan Sweet and security expert Mark Toth told MailOnline that Israel could cripple Iran’s burgeoning nuclear programme.
‘(An Israeli attack) could take the form of the IDF striking Iran’s nuclear sites in an effort to kill two birds with one stone: deterrence and markedly setting back Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s nuclear weapons programme.
‘Israel could deploy one or all of its long-range assets to strike those targets – F-35 stealth fighter-bombers, precision deep-strike ballistic missiles, and/or ICBM-equipped submarines.
‘But this would not be easy. There are 38 known nuclear sites spread throughout Iran including Natanz and Fordow – and undoubtedly more.’
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday openly called for a decisive strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.
‘We must act now to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, its central energy facilities, and to fatally cripple this terrorist regime,’ Bennett wrote on X just hours after the attack on Israel on Tuesday.
‘We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralysed, Iran stands exposed.’
Source » dailymail