The Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, says that it has launched ballistic missiles at Israel in addition to cruise missiles and hundreds of suicide drones.
Iranian officials told state-run media that they had launched a first wave of ballistic missiles at Israel, which should only take 12 minutes to arrive.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that the U.S. now believes that there will be up to 500 drones and missiles fired at Israel from Iraq, Syria, southern Lebanon, and Yemen — where the Iranians have terrorist proxy groups — but that the majority will come directly from Iran.
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“This will be the first direct attack from Iranian soil by Khamenei’s regime after years of murdering Israelis through his terror proxies,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan institution focusing on national security and foreign policy.
“He has crossed a red line,” Dubowitz added. “Israel now has full legitimacy to take out his nuclear sites, refineries and leadership and military sites.”
The attack led to several countries in the region — including Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon — to close their airspaces, according to Flightradar24, a real-time aircraft flight tracking tool.
Situation according to official NOTAMs at 21:35 UTC time.
* Iran airspace closed to VFR flights only.
* Jordan airspace closed.
* Iraq airspace closed.
* Lebanon airspace closed.
* Israel airspace closed. pic.twitter.com/vOeG2Qjcp4— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) April 13, 2024
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), said in a statement, “The aerospace unit of the Revolutionary Guards has attacked targets in Israel with dozens of drones and missiles in reaction” to Israel killing Mohammed Reza Zahedi, the top commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria.
Israel killed Zahedi last week as he met with other Iranian commanders and leaders from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.
Zahedi allegedly played a “strategic role in forming and strengthening the resistance front as well as in planning and executing” Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack against Israel, according to a staunchly pro-IRGC political group.