Israel’s military says Iran has fired about 100 drones towards its territory, after Israel launched a major attack on Iran overnight.
The IDF says it carried out strikes on nuclear sites and says Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami and other commanders have been killed.
Iranian state TV said residential areas in Tehran were hit and civilians were among those killed – including children – though this could not be independently verified.
The attack is part of Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s PM says, adding Iran was a threat to “Israel’s very survival” – Iran’s supreme leader says he won’t let Tel Aviv go unpunished.
Israel has declared a state of emergency, saying the country expected counter-attacks “in the immediate future”.
Iran has accused the US of supporting Israel’s attack, which US strongly denies. President Trump said he was aware of the strikes beforehand but emphasised the US played no part.
Iran confirms at least 6 nuclear scientists killed
Iran has so far confirmed that at least six of its nuclear scientists were killed in Israeli attacks overnight.
The most prominent of those is Fereydoon Abbasi, a former head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, the second one identified, served as the president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, and Amirhossein Feqhi were academics at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University.
The sixth victim has only been identified by their surname, Motallebizadeh.
Read Also: IAEA board declares Iran is in nuclear breach
This attack comes just a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations on Thursday, June 12, 2025, for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the U.N. Security Council.
The major step is the culmination of several festering stand-offs between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran that have arisen since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that deal unravelled.
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