Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran, a United States official told CNN, as blasts were heard near the city of Isfahan early Friday in a potentially escalatory move Iranian government officials have so far sought to play down.
The US was given advance notification Thursday of an intended Israeli strike in the coming days, but did not endorse the response, a second senior US official said.
Iran’s air defense systems were activated in several locations after three explosions were heard close to a major military airbase near the Iranian city of Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning.
Iranian officials said air defenses intercepted three drones and there were no reports of a missile attack.
Iran has not identified the source of the strike.
Multiple state-aligned news agencies reported that sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program were secure and the attack appeared to be limited in scope.
Senior military commander, Second Brigadier General Mihandoust, told the state-aligned Tasnim news agency there was “no damage” and the noises heard overnight were due to air defense systems targeting a “suspicious object.”
Iranian media appeared to further minimize the scale of the attack later Friday, broadcasting calm scenes from Isfahan showing residents walking through parks and visiting landmarks. Traffic was reported as normal and the airport was also reported to have reopened after flights were briefly canceled or suspended early Friday.
Reports of Friday’s strike came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN that if Israel takes any further military action against Iran, its response would be “immediate and at a maximum level.”
reported in southern Syria after an Israeli strike, targeted “our air defense sites in the southern region,” Syrian state media SANA reported Friday citing a military source. The Israeli military said that it does not comment on reports in foreign media.
The Israeli military said it was unable to provide a comment on Friday, when asked by CNN about reports of explosions in Iran.
Israel’s action in Iran is the latest escalatory move in a region that has been rocked by Israel’s devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack. That attack killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.
Prior to Friday’s Israeli strike, the US expectation was the country would not target Iran’s civilian or nuclear facilities, the senior US official told CNN.
