Several “loud explosions” and “detonations” heard in Irannotably near Tehran, on the night of Friday October 25 to Saturday October 26, when the Israeli army announced raids on its sworn enemy.
Iranian state television reported “six loud bangs” around the Iranian capital. They are “related to the activation of the air defense system against the operation of the Zionist regime which attacked three sites on the outskirts of Tehran”, indicated the channel, in reference to Israel which the Islamic Republic does not recognize.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it had carried out “precise and targeted” strikes on Iran, aiming missile manufacturing sites, surface-to-air missile batteries and other aerial systems in several regions of the country in retaliation for the Iranian attack on Israel on October 1. Iran confirms Israel's attack on military sites in Tehran and elsewhere in the country.
“Self-defense” strikes according to the White House
The first detonations rang out around 2:15 a.m. local time, mainly west of Tehran, according to the official Irna news agency. After a series of six detonations reported earlier in the night by state television, continuous detonations accompanied by light trails were heard and seen from central Tehran. The Iranian capital announced the suspension until further notice of all flights in its airspace.
“The Iranian regime and its allies in the region have continued to attack Israel since October 7 (2023) – on seven fronts – including attacks from Iranian soil (…). The State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond. Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized,” she said in a statement.
For his part, White House says Israel's strikes in Iran are 'self-defense' and that the United States is not involved in this operation.
Iran launched some 200 missiles at Israel on October 1, including for the first time several hypersonic missiles. Israel had vowed to make Iran pay for this attack.
Between tension and relaxation
The strikes come amid regional tensions
exacerbated for a year by the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Hamasand its spillover into neighboring Lebanon, where the Israeli army faces Hezbollah. These two Islamist movements oppose Israel and are supported financially and militarily by Iran, which has made support for the Palestinian cause one of the pillars of its foreign policy since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
The Iranian missile launches of October 1 were presented by Tehran as retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanonwhich cost the lives of an Iranian general and the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, at the end of September. The latter, who led the Lebanese movement for more than thirty years, maintained close ties with Iran.
Iranian officials also justified this operation as a response to the assassination on their territory, attributed to Israel, of Ismaïl Haniyeh, then leader of Hamas. In recent weeks, Iran has played on both tension and relaxationfaced with threats of Israeli retaliation for its missile launches. “We will hit you again painfully” in the event of an attack, warned General Hossein Salami, the leader of the Revolutionary Guards, the powerful ideological army responsible for defending the regime of the Islamic Republic.
In April, Tehran had already fired missiles and drones against Israel, during an unprecedented operation after a deadly attack against its consulate in Syria, blamed on the Israeli army. Detonations in central Iran were subsequently reported, with senior American officials speaking in the media about an Israeli response.
Israel, for its part, has never claimed responsibility for an attack.. Iran, for its part, minimized these detonations, the origin of which has never been clearly explained.
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