U.S. officials said on Saturday that its air strike against Iran has started after Israel admitted its attack on Tehran, the capital of Iran.
The attack marks the second U.S. attack on Iran in less than a year. Last June, the U.S. bombed three nuclear sites in the country, which U.S. President Donald Trump claimed “completely and totally obliterated” them. The strikes is roughly two months after the U.S. launched a military operation in Venezuela to capture its leader Nicolas Maduro.
Meanwhile, Israel declared a state of emergency across the entire country as they anticipated a retaliation from Iran.
An explosion was heard near the office of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei in downtown Tehran. Khamenei reportedly had been relocated away from Tehran prior to the strike.
Israel closed its airspace, "halting educational activities, gatherings, and activities in workplaces," with exemptions for essential business. The Israeli military also advised the public to stay near shelters, though there was no requirement to enter them.
The U.S. Embassy in Qatar instructed all staff to shelter in place and recommended that all Americans in the area do the same until further notice.
Earlier that day, the Israeli military attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is a key part of the Iranian-led "Axis of Resistance."
In a statement, the Israeli military indicated that their targets included rocket launch sites and underground bunkers. The military claimed that Hezbollah was using these facilities to launch attacks against Israel and had been active within this infrastructure in an attempt to restore its operational capabilities.
Two days earlier, the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Ford, left the naval base at Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete and was set to join the USS Lincoln carrier strike group in forming a "dual-carrier" presence in the Middle East. Additionally, 11 F-22 fighter jets were deployed to Ovda Air Base in southern Israel.
Channel 13 in Israel cited security sources saying that a joint U.S.-Israeli attack has been in preparation for several months.
After the conclusion of U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations on Feb. 26, Brad Cooper, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, briefed U.S. President Donald Trump on military options regarding Iran. Cooper is the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in the Middle East. This was the first time Cooper had provided such a briefing to Trump since the escalation of the Iranian crisis last December.
