Iran's state-run news agency says Iran has fired ballistic missiles at targets inside Israel
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Iran says it has launched ballistic missiles as part of its attack targeting Israel.
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack.
Already, slow-moving Shahed-136 bomb-carrying drones have been seen in the skies over Iran. However, those are more easily shot down.
A ballistic missile moves on an arch trajectory, heading up into space before gravity brings the weapon down at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.
Israel has missile defense systems capable of targeting ballistic missiles. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles like the campaign launched late Saturday by Iran, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.
Iran launched dozens of drones toward Israel late Saturday, Israeli and Iranian officials confirmed, on an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East ever closer to a regionwide war.
Israel's military said over 100 drones had been fired but that its air defenses were prepared for the attack and it was ready to respond. The U.S., with its large troop presence in the region, said it would provide unspecified support to Israel.
“We are monitoring the threat,” the Israeli military's spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, announced in a nationwide television address, saying it would take several hours for the drones to reach Israel. The Israeli military said it could not confirm if it had intercepted any drones or what their targets were.
The attack marked the first time Iran had ever launched a full-scale military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran had vowed revenge since an April 1 airstrike in Syria killed two Iranian generals inside an Iranian consular building. Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack. Israel hasn't commented on it.
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel's six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
(Source : AP & The Pioneer)
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