*What has Israel hit in Iran and who were the generals and nuclear scientists killed?* https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaD22E27YScxhpM8Re26 Also Read: *Iran vows revenge for Israeli strikes, saying it will write ‘end of this story’* https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaD22E27YScxhpM8Re26 This is what we know so far after Israeli strikes on multiple Iranian targets More than 200 Israeli jets were involved in air raids on at least 100 targets in Iran in five waves of strikes, including at the key Natanz nuclear site as well as at ballistic missile sites. Israel also killed at least six senior Iranian nuclear scientists and a number of senior Iranian officials, including its most senior military officer and the head of the Revolutionary Guards. About a dozen different sites appear to have been attacked, including in Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan and Kermanshah. What nuclear sites were attacked? The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed strikes at the Natanz nuclear site about 135 miles south east of Tehran, Iran’s most significant nuclear enrichment site, that began at just after 4am local time. Protected by heavy concrete walls, Natanz’s centrifuge facilities are located underground and the site has been targeted for sabotage operations on multiple locations. Construction work had been under way to expand the site. Natanz is where Iran has produced much of its nuclear fuel – including a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that the west has suggested could be used in a future nuclear weapon. It is unclear how much damage was done during the attack, but video footage posted online appeared to show the aftermath of massive explosions. However, on Friday morning the IAEA said their had been no reported nuclear contamination from the Israeli attack. At the time of writing, the IAEA – quoting Iranian authorities – said a number of other key Iranian sites including the Fordow nuclear enrichment site, the Isfahan nuclear site and the Bushehr nuclear power plant had not been hit. What else was hit? Early reports suggest Bid Kaneh, which hosts several missile development and production sites, was also hit on Friday morning. Iran has confirmed a number of senior military figures and scientists were also assassinated, some in strikes on private residences, pointing to a military operation going far beyond Israel’s stated intention of preventing Tehran crossing the threshold for acquiring a nuclear weapon. Among those killed were the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, suggesting a broader “decapitation” strike aimed at weakening the Iranian regime. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed hope the attacks would trigger the downfall of Iran’s theocracy, saying his message to the Iranian people was that Israel’s fight was not with them, but with the “brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years”. Who were Salami and Bagheri? Both officers were closely associated with the centres of power in Iran’s security hierarchy having risen through the ranks after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Two men in military uniform Hossein Salami (left) and Mohammad Bagheri (right), two of Iran’s top military officers, were killed in Israel’s strikes. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA Salami began his career in the IRGC in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq war, becoming deputy commander in 2009 then, a decade later, commander of the 125,000-strong force that has played a key role in Iran’s forward foreign policy in the region. Salami had been sanctioned by the UN and US for his involvement in Iran’s nuclear and military programmes. “If you make the slightest mistake, we will open the gates of hell for you,” Salami warned Tehran’s foes during a tour of an underground missile base in January. Advertisement Mohammad Bagheri, who was in his early 60s, had also risen through the IRGC, like Salami fighting in the Iran-Iraq war with a background in military intelligence before being appointed chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran – the country’s highest military position – in 2016. His position made him, formally at least, the second most powerful figure in Iran after the Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Some press reports have suggested Bagheri was one of the revolutionary students that seized the US embassy in 1979. Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, was also reported as having been killed. It was also reported that Ali Shamkhani, a key adviser to and confidant of Khamenei, was also killed in a strikes on an apartment block in Tehran. Who were the scientists who were killed? Israel has a history of targeting Iranian nuclear scientists, and this attack was no exception with at least six scientists being killed on Friday. The Tasnim news agency named the six scientists including Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was the president of the Islamic Azad University of Iran, a theoretical physicist and the president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. People holding photographs with the flag of Iran in the background Protesters in Tehran after the Israeli strikes hold posters of some of the nuclear scientists and military officers who were killed, including of Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi (left), Fereydoun Abbasi (centre) and Gholamali Rashid (right). Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA Also killed was Fereydoun Abbasi, a former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Tasnim additionally named Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi, Motalleblizadeh, as other scientists who were killed. ----- Iran *Iran vows revenge for Israeli strikes, saying it will write ‘end of this story’* Israel says Iran launched 100 drones towards its territory after attack on Iranian nuclear sites and killing of military leaders Iran vowed to avenge the attack on its nuclear sites and the assassination in Tehran of its senior military leadership, saying it would respond forcefully and that the “end of this story will be written by Iran’s hand”. In the first signs of a counterstrike, Israel said Iran had launched 100 drones towards Israel and that its air defences were intercepting them outside Israeli territory. Iraq said more than 100 Iranian drones had crossed its airspace, and, soon after, neighbouring Jordan said its air force and defence systems had intercepted several missiles and drones that had entered its airspace, for fear they would fall in its territory. Responding to what amounted to the most serious and largest ever attack by Israel, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment” and claimed residential areas had been targeted. The Iranian leadership vowed both a military and diplomatic response, saying women and children had been killed in the strikes across Iran. It remains to be seen if Iran decides to attack US military sites in the Middle East, but its leaders are likely to believe that the Trump administration was not just aware of these strikes in advance, but covertly endorsed them. The US said it had not been involved in the attacks, but Tehran pointed both to Israeli officials stating the attack had been completely coordinated with the US, and that the Israeli air force is entirely dependent on US supplies. In a furious statement, the Iranian government accused Israel of terrorism and insisted the attack demonstrated it “does not adhere to any international rules or laws and, like a drunkard, openly and brazenly engages in terror and ignites the flames of war before the eyes of the world, including westerners who claim to uphold human rights and international law”. “Starting a war with Iran is playing with the lion’s tail,” the statement added. In a telling warning that the Iranian regime, if it survives, may now indeed feel the need to try to assemble a nuclear bomb in the face of Israel’s attacks, the statement further said: “The world now better understands Iran’s insistence on the right to enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power, and the enemy has made it possible to prove our injustice and righteousness, who is the aggressor and which regime is threatening the security of the region.” Among those killed by Israeli strikes were Gen Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen Gholamali Rashid, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, the nuclear scientist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization. Residential buildings across Tehran were hit. Pictures showed that specific floors on high-rise apartments were struck, but the damage had spread to many different floors. Army barracks across the country appear to have been hit, with reports trickling in of deaths and damage. But Isfahan regional governors said there had been no leakage of uranium from the Natanz nuclear facility. No electricity or oil installations were struck, but Israel may well return to hit economic targets in the coming days, depending on any Iranian response. Iran, aware that the savage blow to its prestige may lead to some form of uprising, urged its citizens only to listen to official channels, and ignore rumours. The foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had been in Oslo with other Arab ministers for a security conference and had been looking towards Oman-brokered talks on Sunday with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photograph: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/Reuters The planned sixth round of talks, the first in which both sides had put forward proposals in writing, were to focus on whether Iran would be allowed to continue domestic uranium enrichment with monitoring by the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran insists it did not have a covert plan to build a nuclear bomb, but all signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty including Iran have a sovereign right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. It says the comprehensive report put to the IAEA board this week showed no evidence that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon. The report did say it could not be certain that the nuclear programme was entirely civilian in purpose. Tehran has consistently argued that its increased stockpiles of highly enriched uranium were a calculated and legitimate response to Donald Trump unilaterally withdrawing in 2018 from the nuclear deal agreed with Barack Obama three years earlier and imposing economic sanctions. The highly experienced Iranian negotiating team were aware that Israel was increasingly worried that Trump, facing an open war for his ear on Iran in Washington, might strike an unsatisfactory deal with Iran. But the consensus among Arab diplomats was that Trump was sincere in saying he did not want Israel to strike, and that he would allow the bilateral US-Iran talks to play out before permitting any Israeli action. The belief among Iranian negotiators that they had further time before Trump implicitly or explicitly sanctioned military action looks, in retrospect, to have been a severe error. But the right to enrich has been an Iranian red line for decades, and they will reject the accusation they overplayed a weak hand. Moreover, Iranian diplomats had been led to believe initially that the US would permit Iran to continue some form of uranium enrichment, but had been struggling to convert that belief into a specific American offer in the talks held in Oman and Rome. Iran will now have to reflect whether it was being played by the US negotiators, or whether Israel has the freedom of action to mount such an assault without a green light from Washington. Israel launches strikes on ‘dozens’ of sites in Iran, targeting nuclear programme Read more To many Iranian eyes, despite the reports that Trump was distancing himself from Israel, there is little the US president has done in practice since taking office to restrain Israel either in Gaza or across the region. Araghchi, for instance, said on 23 April: “The attempts by the Israeli regime and certain special interest groups to derail diplomacy – using variety of tactics – is abundantly clear for all to see. Our security services are on high alert.” Iran’s air defences have proved ineffective, partly due to the previous airstrikes launched on Iran by Israel in October that took out Russian-made air defence systems, including around its nuclear sites. One of the few cards Iran has to play is that in recent months, it has managed to improve its fractured relations with Arab states in the region, even though its policy of forward defence based on proxy groups in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Iraq was largely dismantled by Israel. But the valued Gulf state sympathy for Iran is not likely to extend to joint military action against Israel. -----