Explosions were heard in Iran after Israel launched missile strikes in retaliation for a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles fired by Tehran over the weekend, three U.S. news organizations reported.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said on Friday local time that explosions were heard near the airport at the central city of Isfahan.
Citing three Iranian officials, the New York Times reported that a military airport near Isfahan had been targeted.
“The cause of these sounds is still unknown, and investigations continue until the exact details of the incident are determined,” Fars reported.
An unidentified Iranian official later told Reuters that the explosions came from local air defense systems, adding that no missile attack had been carried out. The brief report made no mention of Israeli drones.
Civilian airports were closed in Iran and flights from the Persian Gulf were diverted. There was no immediate comment from Israeli and U.S. officials.
“The Israeli military carried out an airstrike inside central Iran in retaliation for a barrage of missiles and drones launched against Israel last weekend,” an Israeli official said Friday. He added that it was intended to signal to Iran that Israel had the ability to strike inside the country. A second person familiar with an Israeli briefing on the attack but not authorized to speak about it said the strike was “carefully calibrated.”
Iran’s weekend swarm of munitions and Israel’s response marked the first direct exchanges of fire between the regional arch-enemies.
Israel, the U.S., and other regional and Western allies joined forces on Saturday to blast hundreds of Iranian drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles out of the sky after they were fired at Israel. That attack was itself an act of retaliation after Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khameni, blamed Israel for an airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, that killed several people including a leading Revolutionary Guards commander. Agency reports
