Tehran reported three explosions near a military base in the center of the country early Friday morning, the official Fars agency reported. Drones have been shot down but there has been no missile attack “so far,” Iranian authorities said. And the nuclear installations based in the Isfahan region (center) are “totally safe”, assured the Tasnim agency.
According to American officials cited by several American television stations including ABC News, this is an Israeli attack carried out against Iran in retaliation for Iranian strikes against Israel last weekend. Israel would have warned Washington of this operation.
Washington has not yet made any official comment. “We have not approved the response,” however, declared a US official, according to CNN. The American Embassy in Israel has also announced that it is restricting the travel of its staff.
Israeli “No comment”
Iran has activated its air defense in several provinces after reports of explosions in the center of the country, the official IRNA agency said. Commercial flights were suspended for a time from and to several airports, including those in Tehran, according to the Mehr agency, citing airport authorities.
The Israeli army told AFP that it had no comment “at the moment” on the subject of the explosions. The military said alarm sirens had sounded in northern Israel, the scene of exchanges of fire in recent months between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, supported by Iran.
Fears of conflagration
This Friday at dawn, explosions were also heard in southern Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). “Israeli strikes targeted a radar position of the Syrian army between the provinces of Soueida and Deraa,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the OSDH, based in the United Kingdom but who has from a vast network of sources in Syria.
These new developments come as Israel threatened to respond to the attack on its territory last weekend launched by Tehran after a deadly strike blamed on Israel against its consulate in Damascus, Syria.