Residents survey damage to buildings from Israeli airstrikes, Nobonyad Square, Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025 (Majid Saeedi/Getty)

Iranians Stunned by Israel’s Strikes: “The Sky is Red and We Fear More Attacks”

EA on France 24: Trump’s Blank Check for Israel’s Strikes on Iran

Israel Strikes “Dozens” of Targets in Iran, Kills Revolutionary Guards’ Commander-in-Chief

UPDATE 1036 GMT:

Israel has named nine Iranian nuclear scientists whom it claims have been slain by airstrikes.

“All the scientists and experts who were eliminated were significant sources of knowledge in the Iranian nuclear project, and had decades of cumulative experience in the development of nuclear weapons,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

Iran media report the latest Israeli strikes are on the west and northwest of the country, including the city of Tabriz and the provinces of Lorestan, Hamedan, and Kermanshah.

Two people were killed on a missile site in Assadabad in western Iran.

UPDATE 1034 GMT:

Iran’s Supreme Leader has named Majid Mousavi to replace Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who was killed on Friday by Israel’s strikes, as commander of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force.

UPDATE 1018 GMT:

The Israel Defense Forces say they destroyed “several critical sections”, including uranium conversion infrastructure and labs, at the Isfahan nuclear site in central Iran.

The IDF denied striking the Fordoo uranium enrichment complex, after Iran State media said that there had been “limited damage”.

UPDATE 0940 GMT:

Pope Leo XIV has told an audience in St Peter’s Basilica that he was after the situation with “great concern”:

I wish to forcefully renew an appeal for responsibility and reason.

The commitment to build a safer world free from the nuclear threat must be pursued through a respectful meeting and sincere dialogue. No one should ever threaten the existence of the other.

UPDATE 0934 GMT:

Iran State TV say around 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a housing complex in Tehran.

UPDATE 0746 GMT:

Iran has confirmed the killing of two more deputy commanders by Israel: Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Mehrabi, deputy head of intelligence at the Armed Forces General Staff, and Brig. Gen. Mehdi Rabbani, deputy chief of operations.

“These commanders, who served during the eight years of the Sacred Defense [1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War], were martyred in a cowardly attack by the Zionist regime,” the Armed Forces’ public relations office said.

UPDATE 0705 GMT:

Satellite images confirm damage to Iran’s ballistic missiles from Israeli strikes.

The missiles are based in Kermanshah and Tabriz in western Iran.

UPDATE 0655 GMT:

Mehrabad Airport, Tehran’s main airport for domestic flights, is among the latest targets of Israeli strikes.

Iranian media reported that the Israelis tried to hit a hangar with fighter jets.

The Israel Air Force posted:

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.

For the first time since the beginning of the war, over 1,500 km (932 miles) from Israeli territory, the IAF struck defense arrays in the area of Tehran.

UPDATE 0612 GMT:

A retaliatory missile, fired on Israel by the Iran-allied Houthi insurgency in Yemen, has instead killed five Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Three children are among the victims.

The toll in Israel from Iran’s missile attacks has risen to three killed and more than 40 injured.

UPDATE 0522 GMT:

Iran has indicated that it is withdrawing from the sixth set of talks with the Trump Administration over Tehran’s nuclear program, scheduled for Sunday in Oman.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emsail Baghaei said on Saturday morning:

The other side acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime to target Iran’s territory.

However, he hedged, “It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Israel decimated Iran’s military command with deadly airstrikes across the Islamic Republic on Friday.

The initial Israeli attacks in the early morning targeted military commanders, scientists, and sites of the Iranian nuclear programme.

Iranian officials soon confirmed the killing of the commander-in-chief of the specialist Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Hossein Salami, and the Chief of Staff of the regular armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri. Senior commander Gen. Ghulam Ali Rashid was also slain.

The officials denied the claim of Israeli officials that a gathering of commanders had been hit, killing more than 20. However, later in the day they acknowledged that Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ missile program, was dead.

Six nuclear engineers were slain: Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi, Motalleblizadeh, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, and Fereydoun Abbasi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization from 2011 to 2013.

Iranian media focused on reports that 78 people were killed and 329 injured by Israel’s attacks on residential areas in Tehran. Footage showed damage to high-rise blocks in the capital.

However, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization conceded that the Israeli strikes damaged parts of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, while emphasizing that there were no casualties among staff or “any radiation or chemical contamination spreading outside the facility”.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi says the “above ground plant where Iran was producing uranium enriched up to 60%” — which can potentially be enriched to a military grade of more than 90% — had been destroyed.

He said the radiological contamination at the Natanz complex was manageable with appropriate measures. There was no indication of attack on underground enrichment halls at Natanz, although attacks on power supply may have damaged centrifuges.

Israeli attacks later in the day aimed at military positions and airfields. Iranian officials said eight people were killed at the Tabriz airport in the northwest of the country.

Iran’s Retaliation with Drones and Missiles

Iran’s Supreme Leader quickly named replacements for the slain commanders and declared: “[Israel] should anticipate a severe punishment .By God’s grace, the powerful arm of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces won’t let them go unpunished.”

In the morning, the Iranians launched more than 100 drones towards Israel. All were intercepted, some by Jordan in its airspace.

In the evening, Iran fired a volley of missiles, with the Revolutionary Guards claiming attacks on dozens of targets in Israel.

An “Iranian senior official” said: “Our revenge has just started, they will pay a high price for killing our commanders, scientists and people…..Nowhere in Israel will be safe…..Our revenge will be painful.”

Israeli officials say seven people in the center of the country were lightly injured. US counterparts said the American military had helped shoot down the missiles, using ground-based systems.

Iran also asserted that at least one Israeli fighter jet was downed by air defense and that its pilot has been detained. Israel denied the claim.

The first fatalities were reported overnight, amid explosions over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Three people reportedly killed, one in Tel Aviv and two in central Israel, and at least 40 injured.

Trump’s Endorsement for Israel; International Concern and Appeals to Step Back

US officials said they were notified in advance of the Israeli strikes.

Donald Trump went farther with an endorsement:

I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to “just do it”, but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.

I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told….

Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!

He demanded, “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”

In contrast, international leaders criticized the attacks and called for restraint on all sides.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted, “A diplomatic resolution is now more urgent than ever, for the sake of the region’s stability and global security.”

National heads across Europe echoed the appeal. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said all parties should “refrain from steps that could lead to a further escalation and destabilize the whole region”.