Israel unfolds campaign against Iran's nuclear program

Israel unfolds campaign against Iran's nuclear program

Israel began on Friday morning with a wave of unprecedented air strikes on Iran, with important locations of the Iranian nuclear program and residential areas being attacked in wealthy quarter of Tehran. Some of the country's highest ranking military leaders were killed.

Details of the attacks

An analysis of CNN based on satellite images and a variety of videos that were shared on social media shows how the far -reaching operation in the country developed. The attacks stretched over several hundred miles from Tel Aviv and continued until the afternoon, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the bombing could continue.

Operation "Rising Lion"

Israeli military leadership stated that 200 fighter planes for the operation, which was called "Rising Lion", used. The attacks pursued several strategies: heavy air strikes against at least one uranium -enrichment system from Iran and against its inventory on ballistic rockets and targeted attacks in Tehran to destabilize the military leadership of the regime. The aim was to stop the rapid progress of Iran in the development of nuclear weapons.

consequences of the attacks

Videos that were geolocalized and verified by CNN show that several residential areas were hit in Tehran, including North, West and Eastern Herran. Signs from the after -effects showed crowds and rescue workers who gathered around collapsed buildings in densely populated areas.

reactions and international tensions

Israeli operation was preceded by the threats and days of increased speculation. At the beginning of the week, the US government tried not to deduct essential employees from different locations in the Middle East, with a representative of "rising tensions" in the region. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said to reporters in the White House that he did not want Israel to attack Iran as long as talks to achieve a new agreement to limit the Iranian connection.

Iran strikes back

In response, Iran started over 100 drones towards Israeli territory, as the Israeli military reported, followed by a rain of ballistic rockets.

chronology of attacks

Here is what we know about the course of the Israeli attack, minute after minute. All times are related to the local time in Iran.

early in the morning: first attacks

The first reports of explosions in Tehran arrived at around 3:30 a.m. A video geolocalized by CNN showed a fire that caught several floors of a apartment block in northern Tehran, while emergency services arrived at the scene.

Seven miles west of these buildings - still in the north of the city - showed another video the damage by attacking the wealthy quarter of Chamran Town. An entire wall of one of the buildings was demolished, while people could be seen that climbed through the debris.

A blow met centrally near the Laleh Park, the place of protests about the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, a 22-year-old woman who died after I was arrested by Iran's moral police because she supposedly did not wear her headscarf.

continuation of the attacks

beyond the capital, a video showed a blow to the Piranshahr military base in the west of Iran, about 350 miles (approx. 560 kilometers) from Tehran. The clip showed the nightly sky, which was illuminated by a row of faster explosions, while Rauch rose in the distance.

Trevor Ball, a ammunition researcher and former US Army expert for explosive fabrics, told CNN that the video pointed out a "burning rocket engine", which would match a warehouse for ballistic rockets.

The attacks also met the Nuclear system Natanz, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Tehran. Recordings from social media showed a huge fire ball that rose from the system. CNN received radar images from a spatial research company, Umbra, which documented damage to several areas of the system. Other satellite images checked by CNN showed the same damage more clearly; Black smoke swaths rose from several places in the system.

statement by the Iranian atomic energy authority

Iran's atomic energy agency said that its primary uranium enrichment system "had not suffered serious damage" and "no radiation leaks occurred that could take care of the population". The spokesman for the atomic energy organization Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said in the Iranian state media that the damage was on the ground far from the underground facilities at the location.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Agency Agency, said in a statement that "the radiation values ​​outside the Natanz system had remained unchanged", but added that "radioactive contamination was available within the system that could be treated with suitable protective measures".

4:14 a.m.: IDF comments

Soon after the first explosions, the Tehran shook, the Israeli defense army (IDF) announced that it had carried out preventive attacks on the Iranian nuclear program. She explained that she used Jets to attack "dozens of military goals, including nuclear goals in various regions of Iran". The explanation came at 3:44 a.m. in Israel, which is 30 minutes behind the Iranian time zone.

4:35 p.m.: Rubio distances itself from the USA

In a few minutes, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that the United States was "not involved in the attacks of Israel" and that the actions of Israel were "unilateral". "Let me make it clear: Iran should not attack US interests or people," said Rubio in an explanation to X and anticipated a possible Iranian reaction.

sunrise: attacks continue

Only one mile west of the attacks on Chamran Town showed a daylight video the consequences of an attack in the Chizar district of Tehran. A huge hole had been torn into the top two floors of a building, with bent iron that was hung from the concrete structure.

residents in Tehran later reported that they had been woken up by the "quake" of their houses by the Israeli attack. A 17-year-old Iranian who wanted to remain anonymous said that people had "shouted" in the streets. "I didn't know what happened. It was really scary," said the teenager.

5:17 p.m.: Netanyahu terminates operation "rising lion" to

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