Israel launches long-awaited counterstrike on Iran
Israel launched its long-awaited retaliatory strikes on Iran early Saturday local time, the Israeli military said. Israel had vowed payback for Iran’s Oct. 1 attack, during which the Islamic republic launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
In a statement, Israel Defense Forces said that “in response to months of continuous attacks” from Iran, it conducted “precise strikes on military targets in Iran.”
A source told CBS News the Israeli attack was limited to military targets, and not nuclear or oil installations. And in a video posted later Saturday morning, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirmed that the IDF had “concluded the Israeli response to Iran’s attacks against Israel.” No further details were immediately provided.
Israel had the right to defend itself and respond to the Iranian attack, but Mr. Biden was clear that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities or major oil infrastructure.
In anticipation of the Israeli response — and any potential Iranian counter-response — the U.S. sent Israel a new missile defense system in mid-October. Austin said on Oct. 21 that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had arrived in Israel, along with about 100 American troops.
Iran defended its missile attack on Israel as a “legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime — which involved targeting Iranian nationals and interests and infringing upon the national sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
U.S. officials told CBS News before the Iranian attack that Tehran had been ready to strike Israel on short notice since early August, when Iran first threatened to retaliate for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel has killed several senior Iranian and Iran-backed military and paramilitary commanders in strikes across the region, although it did not publicly claim responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
An Iranian diplomatic source told CBS News immediately after the Oct. 1 missile attack that Iran’s leadership had been “under heavy pressure to take action” amid escalating Israeli attacks on Iran’s close ally Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and has long been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., Israel and many other countries.
Israel has mounted a blistering offensive against Hezbollah — by far the most powerful of Iran’s so-called proxy groups in the region — since mid-September, killing many of its senior leaders and bombing its strongholds in Beirut’s southern suburbs and across the south of Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
The Israel Defense Forces have also carried out ground operations in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese public health ministry says Israel’s operations in the country since September have killed about 1,500 people and displaced some 1.2 million from their homes.
The IDF said it had been forced to launch its assault on Hezbollah in response to the group’s year-long barrage of rocket and drone fire targeting northern and central Israel. Hezbollah has vowed to continue those attacks on Israel until the war with its fellow Iranian benefactor Hamas in Gaza comes to an end.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Margaret Brennan
contributed to this report.
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Source: cbsnews.com