Israel attacks Iran's nuclear and missile sites, prompting Iranian
drone-strike retaliation
[June 13, 2025]
By JON GAMBRELL, JOSEF FEDERMAN and JULIA FRANKEL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel attacked Iran's capital early
Friday in strikes that targeted the country's nuclear program and killed
at least two top military officers, raising the potential for an all-out
war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be
the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with
Iraq.
Simmering tensions over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program boiled
over and Iran quickly retaliated, sending a swarm of drones at Israel as
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of “severe punishment.”
Countries in the region condemned Israel's attack, while leaders around
the globe called for immediate deescalation from both sides.
Israel's military said about 200 aircraft were involved in the initial
attack on about 100 targets. Two security officials said the country's
Mossad spy agency was also able to position explosive drones inside Iran
ahead of time and then activate them to target missile launchers at an
Iranian base near Tehran.
They said Israel had also smuggled precision weapons into central Iran
as well as strike systems on vehicles, which were activated as the
attack began to hit Iranian air defenses.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the highly
secretive missions and it was not possible to independently confirm
their claims. There was no official comment.
The Israeli attack hit several sites, including Iran's main nuclear
enrichment facility at Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising
into the air. Later in the morning, Israel said it had also destroyed
dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in
western Iran.
The leader of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein
Salami, was confirmed dead, Iranian state television reported, a
significant blow to Tehran's governing theocracy and an immediate
escalation of its long-simmering conflict with Israel.
The chief of staff of Iranian armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was
also confirmed dead by Iranian state television. Khamenei said other top
military officials and scientists were also killed.
Israel claimed it killed Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the
Revolutionary Guard missile program. Iran did not immediately
acknowledge his death officially, though rumors of his death had been
circulating for some time online.
Hajizadeh is a major commander within the Guard, overseeing its
ballistic missile arsenal.
In response, Iran fired more than 100 drones at Israel, with both Iraq
and Jordan confirming they had flown over their airspace. Israel said
the drones were being intercepted outside its airspace, and it was not
immediately clear whether any got through.
In his first public comment about the attacks, U.S. President Donald
Trump again urged Iran to reach a deal with Washington on its nuclear
program, warning on his Truth Social platform that Israel’s attacks
“will only get worse.”
Without saying whether he was privy to specific Israeli plans, Trump
said “there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already
planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end.”
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was
once known as the Iranian Empire,” he wrote. “No more death, no more
destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
Washington had cautioned Israel against an attack during continued
negotiations over Iran's nuclear enrichment program. It stressed the
U.S. had not been involved and warned against any retaliation targeting
U.S. interests or personnel.
It seemed likely the U.S. suspected an attack could be in the offing,
however, with Washington on Wednesday pulling some American diplomats
from Iraq’s capital and offering voluntary evacuations for the families
of U.S. troops in the wider Middle East.
Israel calls attacks preemptive strikes on Iran’s nuclear program
Israeli leaders cast attack as necessary to head off an imminent threat
that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close
the country is to achieving that or whether Iran had actually been
planning a strike. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for civilian
purposes only.
“It could be a year. It could be within a few months," Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu claimed as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long
as necessary to “remove this threat.”
"This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival,” he said.
Over the past year, Israel has been targeting Iran’s air defenses,
hitting a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery in April
2024 and surface-to-air missile sites and missile manufacturing
facilities in October.
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Residents watch a damaged apartment in Tehran, Iran, early Friday,
June 13, 2025. Israel attacked Iran's capital early Friday, with
explosions booming across Tehran.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Nervous Israelis rushed to supermarkets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and
elsewhere to buy bottled water and other supplies, and circulated
messages on WhatsApp groups advising each other to prepare their
shelters for potential long-term use.
Iran claims Israel targeted residential areas
Israel “opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our
beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by
striking residential centers,” Khamenei said in a statement.
For Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel’s
ongoing and increasingly devastating war in Gaza, which is now over
20 months old.
There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a
major threat, and Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a staunch
critic of Netanyahu, offered his “full support” for the mission
against Iran. But if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli
casualties or major disruptions to daily life, public opinion could
shift quickly.
Netanyahu expressed hope the attacks would trigger the downfall of
Iran’s theocracy, saying his message to the Iranian people was that
the fight was not with them, but with the “brutal dictatorship that
has oppressed you for 46 years.”
“I believe that the day of your liberation is near,” the Israeli
leader said.
Multiple sites in the Iranian capital were hit in the attack, which
Netanyahu said targeted both nuclear and military sites. Also
targeted were officials leading Iran’s nuclear program and its
ballistic missile arsenal. The International Atomic Energy Agency
confirmed that an Israeli strike hit Iran’s uranium enrichment
facility at Natanz and said it was closely monitoring radiation
levels.
The strike on Iran pushed the Israeli military to its limits,
requiring the use of aging air-to-air refuelers to get its fighter
jets close enough to attack. It wasn’t immediately clear if Israeli
jets entered Iranian airspace or just fired so-called “standoff
missiles” over another country. People in Iraq heard fighter jets
overhead at the time of the attack. Israel previously attacked Iran
from over the border in Iraq.
Tension had been growing for weeks ahead of attacks
The potential for an attack had been apparent for weeks as angst
built over Iran's nuclear program.
Once the attacks were underway, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued
an alert telling American government workers and their families to
shelter in place until further notice.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel took “unilateral
action against Iran” and that Israel advised the U.S. that it
believed the strikes were necessary for its self-defense.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority
is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a
statement released by the White House.
Trump is scheduled to attend a meeting of his National Security
Council on Friday in the White House Situation Room, where he is
expected to discuss the conflict with top advisers.
Israel has long been determined to prevent Iran from developing
nuclear weapons, a concern laid bare on Thursday when the Board of
Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency for the first
time in 20 years censured Iran over its refusal to work with its
inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would establish a third
enrichment site and install more advanced centrifuges.
Even so, there are multiple assessments on how many nuclear weapons
Iran could conceivably build, should it choose to do so. Iran would
need months to assemble, test and field any weapon, which it so far
has said it has no desire to do. U.S. intelligence agencies also
assess Iran does not have a weapons program at this time.
In a sign of the far-reaching implications of the emerging conflict,
Israel's main airport was closed and benchmark Brent crude spiked on
news of the attack, rising nearly 8% before retreating slightly.
___
Federman and Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press
writers Nasser Karimi, Amir Vahdat and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran,
Iran; Melanie Lidman and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel; Eric
Tucker in Washington; Bassem Mroue and Abby Sewell in Beirut,
Lebanon; and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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