The state-run IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying that ballistic missiles were part of the attack.
Slow-moving Shaheed-136 bomb-carrying drones have already been spotted in the skies over Iran. However, they are more easily shot down.
A ballistic missile moves on an arc trajectory, moving upward into space, before gravity brings the weapon down at speeds many times the speed of sound.
Israel has missile defense systems capable of engaging ballistic missiles. However, in a major attack involving multiple drones and missiles, such as the operation launched by Iran late Saturday, the probability of an attack is high.
This is a breaking news update. The previous story is below.
Iran launched dozens of drones toward Israel late Saturday, Israeli and Iranian officials confirmed, in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a region-wide war.
Israel’s military said more than 100 drones were fired upon, but its air defenses were prepared for the attack and ready to respond. With its large military presence in the region, the US said it would provide unspecified support to Israel.
“We are keeping an eye on the threat,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said in the announcement in a nationwide televised address. He said it would take several hours for the drone to reach Israel. The Israeli military said it could not confirm this. intercepted any drones or what their targets were.
The attack marks the first time Iran has launched a full-scale military attack on Israel, despite decades of hostility dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran vowed revenge after an air strike in Syria on April 1 killed two Iranian generals inside an Iranian consular building. Iran has accused Israel of being behind this attack. Israel has not commented on this.
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course during Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war broke out after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Iran-backed militant groups, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread destruction and killed more than 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
Almost immediately after the war began, Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily firefights, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.
In a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency late Saturday, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that “dozens of drones and missiles were launched toward areas and positions held by the Zionist regime.” The statement did not elaborate.
Online videos shared by state television reportedly showed delta-wing-style drones that resemble the Iranian Shahid-136 drones long used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. Drones carry bombs and fly slowly. Ukraine has successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to target drones.
Iran has a huge stockpile of drones and missiles. Tehran’s choice of Shaheed-136 drones gives Israel and its allies hours to shoot them down. It does not appear that Iran used any of its ballistic missiles in the attack, which would pose a major threat to Israel.
Israel has a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats, including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones, and short-range rockets.
Army spokesman Hagari said Israel was “ready and prepared” with both defensive and offensive responses. But he cautioned that air defenses are not 100% effective and urged the public to pay attention to safety instructions.
The Army’s Home Front Command canceled school on Sunday and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel closed its airspace and canceled all flights.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”
In Washington, President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach home in Delaware to return to the White House. The White House said it was scheduled to convene a major meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the attack.
“The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
Gen. Eric Kurilla, head of U.S. Army Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials about the Iranian threat. Central Command oversees US forces in the Middle East, while Israel has a formidable arsenal that includes long-range missiles and F-35 stealth warplanes.
For several days, Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had threatened to “slap” Israel for the Syria attack.
In Iran’s capital Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people looked worried about what would happen next. Dozens of radicals demonstrated in Palestine Square in support of the attack.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on several locations in southern Lebanon following Iran’s drone launch.
Flight-tracking data late Saturday showed the airspace over Jordan empty, while some flights continued on north-south routes to Iraq. Middle East Airlines’ sole flight from Dubai to Beirut continued to fly over Syria. Lebanon was closing its airspace.
Earlier on Saturday, commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard carried out a helicopter attack on an Israeli-allied container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the ship.
Iran’s state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guard’s navy attacked the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship belonging to London-based Zodiac Maritime.
Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC. Geneva-based MSC acknowledged the seizure and said there were 25 crew members on board.
“We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their well-being and the safe return of the ship,” MSC said.
White House spokesman Watson said the crew included Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian citizens and urged Iran to release them and the ship.
IRNA said the guards would escort the ship into Iranian territorial waters.
A Middle East defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, provided video of the attack to The Associated Press that shows Iranian commandos moving around stacks of containers on the ship’s deck .
The video matches the known description of MSC Aries. The commandos attacked with Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopters, which have previously been used by both the Guards and Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen to attack ships.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP correspondents Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Michael Balsamo in New York, Krutika Pathy in New Delhi, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Thomas Adamson in Paris and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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Published: April 14, 2024, 01:56 am IST
