Israel hits Iranian nuclear research facility as war continues into second week
Israel continues targeted attacks on Iranian military commanders
In Israel’s opening attack, it killed three of Iran’s top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
The targeted killings of senior commanders continued, with Israel’s defense minister saying Saturday that the military had killed a commander in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza.
Israel said Saeed Izadi was commander of the Palestine Corps for the Iranian Quds Force, an elite arm of the Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran, and that he was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom.
Iranian officials did not immediately confirm the death, but the Qom governor’s office did say there had been an attack on a four-story apartment building and local media reported two people had been killed.
Israel also said it had killed the commander of the Quds Force’s weapons transfer unit, who it said was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. Behnam Shahriyari was killed in his car while traveling in western Iran, the military said.
A commander of Iran’s drone force was also killed overnight, the Israeli official who briefed reporters said.
Iran threatens head of U.N. nuclear watchdog
On Friday, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog warned at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council against attacks on Iran’s nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.
“I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment,” said Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. “This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.”
Israel has not targeted Iran’s nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country’s Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital.
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