By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Israel conducted air strikes on various military sites in Iran on Saturday but allegedly only inflicted “limited damage” due to Iran’s air defense systems “successfully countering” the attack, according to Tehran.
From Reuters, “Israel attacks Iran military targets, Tehran says damage ‘limited'”:
Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, but its retaliation for an Iranian attack this month did not appear aimed at the country’s most sensitive oil and nuclear targets after urgent calls from allies and neighbours for restraint.
The risk of a wider conflagration between heavily armed Israel and Iran has convulsed a region already on fire with warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, but it was not clear whether the overnight strikes would trigger further escalation.
Israel’s military said scores of jets had completed three waves of strikes before dawn against missile factories and other sites, and warned its heavily armed arch-foe not to hit back.
Iran said its air defences had successfully countered the attack but two soldiers were killed and some locations suffered “limited damage”. A semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a “proportional reaction” to the Israeli strikes.
Iran’s Press TV confirmed two soldiers were killed in the attack but also said their air defense “successfully intercepted and countered the act of aggression.”
“Despite the previous warnings of the officials of the Islamic Republic to the criminal and illegal Zionist regime to avoid any adventurous action, this fake regime attacked parts of military centers in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam this morning in a tension-causing action,” Iran’s air defense force said.
From Press TV:
Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited a security source as saying on Saturday morning some of the sounds heard in the capital were caused by “defense activity in Tehran.”
The news agency said there were no reports of incidents that required assistance and that the situation at Mehrabad International Airport and the Imam Khomeini International Airport was “normal.”
IRNA said Iranian air defenses “successfully shot down adversarial targets in the airspace around Tehran province.”
Footage shared online captured what appeared to be interceptions over the Iranian capital.
Here’s the footage:
Press TV portrayed the attack as a failure in an article titled, “Netizens mock Israeli aggression, praise Iran’s air defense strength.”
Israel, for whatever reason, released a photoshopped picture of Yoav Gallant in their war room with a blurred out monitor showing an old image from 2021 of an oil refinery fire in Tehran.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid, a “former” IDF soldier who served in Israel’s Unit 8200, said that Israel sent a message to Iran before the attack “warning” them not to respond.
The Saudis said they did not allow their airspace to be used to facilitate the attack.
Jordan claimed the same but appear to have been lying.
“Jordan a few moments ago,” the tweet below says.
If this is the full extent of the attack, it’s a win for America and Iran and a loss for Israel under their own policy of escalation dominance. That said, Israel may simply not want to blow up the war ahead of the presidential election and may believe that if Donald Trump wins he will give them more leeway and military support in a full-scale war with Iran.
It’s also possible Israel is simply afraid that Iran will make good on their threat to respond to a disproportionate counter-attack by “destroying” Israel’s gas fields and power plants “all at once.”
Another possible reason the Jewish state may have chosen a limited strike is that Israeli media reported on Oct 6 that the US had privately offered Israel a “compensation package” in the form of “diplomatic protection and an arms package” if they moderated the attack.
Around a week later, the US sent Israel a $1 billion THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense system along with 100 US troops to operate it.