Israeli weapons deployed in retaliatory strikes against Iran on Friday damaged defense systems tasked with detecting and destroying air threats near the central Iranian city of Natanz, according to two Western and two Iranian officials. Natanz is a city in central Iran that is crucial to the country’s secretive nuclear weapons program.
Western officials said the attack was intended to send a message to Iran that Israel could circumvent and disable Iran’s defenses without being detected, after Iran last week launched hundreds of drones and drones at Israel. missiles deploy only a fraction of the firepower. The attack was intercepted by Israel and its allies and caused minimal damage.
Two Iranian officials said the weapon hit an S-300 air defense system at a military base in nearby Isfahan province.Officials’ claims are backed up by analysis of satellite imagery New York Timesshowing damage to the S-300 system radar at the 8th Shekari Air Base in Isfahan.
It was unclear what type of weapon struck Iran’s air defenses. Three Western officials and two Iranian officials confirmed on Friday that Israel had deployed drones and at least one missile launched from a warplane. Previously, Iranian officials said that the attack on the military base was carried out by a small drone, which was likely launched from Iranian territory.
Two Western officials said the missile was launched from a warplane far away from Israeli or Iranian airspace and its technology allowed it to evade Iran’s radar defenses. Western officials said neither the missile nor the aircraft that launched it entered Jordanian airspace, a move aimed at keeping Jordan out of the conflict after helping to shoot down Iranian weapons last week.
The Iranian military did not detect anything entering Iranian airspace on Friday, including drones, missiles and aircraft, two Iranian officials said. Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that there was no missile attack and Iran’s air defense system was not activated.
Tensions between Iran and Israel, the two old foes, have been heightened this month by a series of attacks. On April 1, Israeli warplanes attacked the Iranian embassy building in Damascus, killing many Iranian armed forces commanders.Iran revenge last weekendlaunched a large number of weapons towards Israel, almost all of which were intercepted.
Two Western officials said Israel has canceled its previous plans to launch a large-scale attack in retaliation against Iran. They said the plan was replaced by a strike aimed at sending a quiet but decisive message to end the cycle of retaliation.
Western officials say Israel’s use of drones and missiles launched from Iranian territory and missiles that Israel cannot detect is intended to give Iran a taste of larger attacks. They said the attack was intended to make Iran think twice before launching a direct attack on Israel in the future.
Neither Iranian nor Israeli officials have spoken publicly about Friday’s attack, a move that appeared aimed at de-escalating a conflict that some fear could turn into a wider regional war. An Iranian official said Israel’s silence on the attack would allow Tehran to treat the attack as if it had been carried out covertly in the two countries’ long shadow war without an immediate response.
Eric Schmidt Contributed reporting.
