Israel attacks Iran’s capital; blasts rock Tehran

JERUSALEM — Israel attacked Iran early Friday, targeting nuclear and military sites in explosions that rocked the capital at a time of heightened tensions between the countries over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz and the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as top nuclear scientists and officials.

He alleged that Iran was working on a new plan to destroy Israel, calling it an intolerable threat that must be stopped.

Iranian state television reported that the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, had been killed, and that one other top guard official and two nuclear scientists were feared dead.

The report offered few other details.

Iran’s state-run news agency quoted an anonymous official as saying Tehran would have a “decisive” response to the attack.

But Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has warned Iran and its regional proxies against retaliating.

“Anyone who tries to challenge us will pay a heavy price,” he said.

The Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday had censured Iran for the first time in 20 years, saying it was not working with IAEA inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site and swap out some centrifuges for more advanced ones.

Israel for years has warned it would not allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran contends it doesn’t want — though officials in Iran have repeatedly said it could build them. The U.S. had been preparing for something to happen, pulling some diplomats from Iraq’s capital and offering voluntary evacuations for the families of American troops in the wider Middle East.

Netanyahu said in an address on YouTube that the attacks will continue “for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” and that it advised the United States that the strikes were necessary for its self-defense.

“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement released by the White House.

Rubio also issued a warning to Iran that it should not target U.S. interests or personnel.

People in Tehran awoke to the sound of the blasts.

It wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit, though smoke could be seen rising from Chitgar, a neighborhood in west Tehran. There are no known nuclear sites in that area — but it wasn’t immediately clear whether anything was happening in the rest of the country.

An Israeli military official confirmed that Iranian nuclear sites had been targeted, without identifying them.

The official spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing operation.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that his country carried out the attack, without saying what it targeted.

“In the wake of the state of Israel’s preventive attack against Iran, missile and drone attacks against Israel and its civilian population are expected immediately,” he said in a statement.

The statement added that Katz “signed a special order declaring an emergency situation in the home front.”

“It is essential to listen to instructions from the home front command and authorities to stay in protected areas,” it said.

Iran halted flights Friday at Imam Khomeini International Airport outside Tehran, the country’s main airport, state TV said.

Iran has closed its airspace in the past when launching attacks against Israel during the Israel-Hamas war.

As the explosions in Tehran started, President Trump was on the lawn of the White House mingling with members of Congress. It was unclear whether he had been informed, but he continued shaking hands and posing for pictures for several minutes.

Trump earlier said he was urging Netanyahu to hold off from taking action while the administration negotiated with Iran.

“As long as I think there is a [chance for an] agreement, I don’t want them going in because I think it would blow it,” Trump told reporters.

Gambrell and Federman write for the Associated Press.