Israel conducts airstrike in Iran, US media say, citing Israeli, US officials

VOA – Israel carried out a predawn aerial strike inside Iran on Friday, local time, U.S. media cited unnamed Israeli and U.S. officials as saying. The overnight incident was the latest of recent retaliatory strikes between the two regional adversaries, but Tehran Friday played the incident down and indicated it had no plans to respond.

The New York Times and The Washington Post cited Israeli officials as saying Israel had carried out an airstrike in Iran. U.S. officials were cited by multiple news outlets as calling it a missile strike.

The location or target of the apparent Israeli strike was not immediately identified.

About an hour after the reports emerged, an Israeli military spokesperson contacted by VOA said he had no comment “at the moment.”

There was also no immediate public comment from the Biden administration on the incident in Iran.

Iranian state news agencies IRNA and Fars said the Islamic republic’s air defenses had been activated near the central city of Isfahan in response to a projectile. They also reported that explosions were heard in the eastern outskirts of the city but did not specify whether the blasts were from interceptions or impacts on the ground.

The director of the Iranian space agency said air defense forces shot down several drones.

Iranian state media quickly attempted to play down the incident, saying Isfahan’s nuclear facilities were secure. They also said operations at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport and Mehrabad domestic airport had returned to normal on Friday, several hours after flights were suspended in an apparent response to the purported Israeli airstrike.

It would mark the latest salvo in a yearslong Israel-Iran shadow war that has escalated significantly this month. Israel had warned Iran that it would retaliate for an unprecedented Iranian aerial assault on Israeli territory last Sunday involving hundreds of drones and missiles. Israel said it intercepted almost all of the projectiles with help from a coalition of Western allies and Arab partners.

Iran had warned, in turn, that any Israeli retaliatory strike would be met with a swift and tougher response. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East security analyst at the Atlantic Council, told VOA Iran’s muted response could be an effort to avert an escalated confrontation, as long as Tehran’s nuclear program is not directly targeted.

“There are estimates and calculations which believe that Iran may be willing to absorb and swallow a limited retaliatory strike by Israel. However, strikes against Tehran’s nuclear program will dramatically escalate the direct confrontation between Iran and Israel,” he said.

The U.S. and other Western powers had urged the Israeli government to avoid escalating the conflict in calculating its next move. U.S. officials had said they did not intend for U.S. forces to join in any Israeli retaliatory action.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East security analyst at the Atlantic Council, told VOA the Biden administration understood Israel’s need to carry out a “face saving” retaliation for Sunday’s Iranian attack.

“Any Israeli strike will necessitate U.S. involvement, cooperation, support, and ultimate endorsement, casting doubt on the accuracy of claims by the Biden administration that it would not be involved in an Israeli retaliation,” Alkhatib said.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and VOA’s Kurdish and Persian services contributed to this report.