Ismail Abdulazeez Mantu Reporting
Tension heightened as Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel in its unprecedented attack overnight, injuring at least 12 people, an Israeli army spokesman said Sunday.
“Last night Iran fired over 300 ballistic missiles, UAVs and cruise missiles towards Israel,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised statement, revising an earlier figure of more than 200 launches.
Hagari said 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles were launched, none of which entered Israeli territory, adding that 110 ballistic missiles were also fired and few of them reached Israel.
In a separate statement, the Israeli military said that “dozens of surface-to-surface missile launches” were identified, with the majority intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.
One of those injured was a seven-year-old girl from a Bedouin community near the southern town of Arad, who was in intensive care, according to the medical centre that received her.
Iran army says attack on Israel ‘achieved all its objectives’
Meanwhile, the Iranian army said Sunday its drone and missile attack on Israel, in retaliation for a deadly strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate, has “achieved all its objectives”.
“Operation Honest Promise… was completed successfully from last night to this morning and achieved all its objectives”, Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian armed forces’ chief of staff, told state TV.
Iran has said it had attacked Israel in “self-defence” following the April 1 strike on its diplomatic mission in Damascus, which was widely blamed on Israel.
The Damascus strike levelled the five-storey consular annexe of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
Bagheri said the retaliatory attack targeted an “intelligence centre” and the air base from which Tehran says the Israeli F-35 jets took off to strike the Damascus consulate.
“Both these centres were significantly destroyed and put out of order,” he said, though Israel maintains that the attack only resulted in minor damage.
“We see this operation as complete, and this operation has ended in our opinion,” Bagheri said.
“There is no intention to continue this operation,” he said, calling on Israel to avoid taking further action against Iran which according to Bagheri would result in a “much bigger” response.
The army chief also warned the United States against aiding any Israeli action against Iran.
“We sent a message to America through the Swiss embassy that if it cooperates with Israel in their next potential actions, their bases will not be secure,” he added.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief, Hossein Salami, hailed what he called “a limited operation” that targeted Israeli “capabilities that were used to attack our embassy”.
Salami added it was “more successful than expected”.
He reiterated warnings of a “counterattack” if Israel targeted Iranian interests or individuals.
