Israeli warplanes pounded Iran’s capital overnight and into Wednesday, June 18, claiming to have hit a facility used to make uranium centrifuges and another that made missile components. The Israeli military said that it intercepted 10 missiles overnight as Iran’s retaliatory barrages diminish.
Iran, meanwhile, warned that any US intervention in the conflict would risk “all-out war in the region.”
Israel is carrying out blistering attacks on Iran’s nuclear program and military sites that began with a surprise bombardment on Friday. A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 585 people, including 239 civilians, have been killed and more than 1,300 wounded.
Shops have been closed across Iran’s capital, Tehran, including in its famed Grand Bazaar, as people wait in gas lines and pack roads leading out of the city to escape the onslaught.
Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones in retaliatory strikes that have killed at least 24 people in Israel and wounded hundreds. Some have hit apartment buildings in central Israel, causing heavy damage, and air raid sirens have repeatedly forced Israelis to run for shelter.
Iran has fired fewer missiles in each of its barrages, with just a handful launched on Wednesday. It has not explained the decline, but it comes after Israel targeted many Iranian launchers.
All eyes are on Washington, where President Donald Trump initially distanced himself from the Israeli attacks but has hinted at greater US involvement, saying he wants something “much bigger” than a ceasefire. The US has also sent more warplanes to the region.
Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in an interview with Al Jazeera English that “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”
Casualties mount in Iran
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of those killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security personnel.
Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimised casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded.
A major explosion could be heard around 5 am in Tehran on Wednesday morning, following other explosions that boomed earlier in the predawn darkness. Authorities in Iran offered no acknowledgement of the attacks, which have become increasingly common as the Israeli airstrikes have intensified.
At least one strike appeared to target Tehran’s eastern neighbourhood of Hakimiyeh, where the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has an academy.
No signs of backing down
Israel says it launched the strikes to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, after talks between the United States and Iran over a diplomatic resolution had made little visible progress over two months but were still ongoing. Trump has said Israel’s campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent. US intelligence agencies have said they did not believe Iran was actively pursuing the bomb.
As the conflict entered a sixth day, neither side showed signs of backing down.
“We will show the Zionists no mercy,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a post on his official X account. “A storm is passing over Tehran,” Israeli defence minister Israel Katz posted. “This is how dictatorships collapse.”
Trump demands Iranian surrender
Trump demanded “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a post on social media and warned Khamenei that the US knows where he is hiding but that there were no plans to kill him “at least not for now.”
Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the evolving situation over the phone on Tuesday, according to a White House official.
Iran offered no immediate response to the president’s posts, but the country’s military leaders vowed that Israel would soon see more attacks.
“The operations carried out so far have been solely for the purpose of warning and deterrence,” Gen Abdul Rahim Mousavi, the commander in chief of Iran’s army, said in a video. “The punishment operation will be carried out soon.”
Israel welcomes first repatriation flights
Israelis began returning to the country on flights for the first time since the country’s international airport shut down at the start of the conflict.
Two flights from Larnaca, Cyprus, landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday morning, said Lisa Dvir, an airport spokesperson.
Israel closed its airspace to commercial flights because of the ballistic missile attacks, leaving tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad. The conflict has disrupted flight patterns across the region.
(With inputs from PTI)
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