Israel and Iran exchanged another round of attacks last night, with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) dramatically stepping up its efforts to go after regime targets, and especially critical command and control infrastructure. Attacking targets of this kind further undermines the ability of the Iranian government to wage war. In particular, it makes it much harder for it to execute coordinated operations, including a response to America’s bombing of its most important nuclear sites. At the very least, it slows such an operation and limits the situational awareness of commanders, which lowers their effectiveness. Going after these target sets also destabilizes the country’s leadership, something that could pave the way for an internal regime change.
UPDATE: You can read the latest on Iran’s revenge attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in our new story here.
In the Iranian capital, Tehran, Israel says it struck targets including command centers belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other domestic security forces responsible for “maintaining the regime’s stability.” Israeli media reports claim that “hundreds” of IRGC members were killed in the attacks. Huge plumes of smoke were seen across the Tehran skyline.
“These forces consist of various corps and command centers and are responsible, on behalf of the Iranian regime’s military, for defending the homeland security, suppressing threats, and maintaining the regime’s stability,” the Israel Defense Force (IDF) said in a statement, The Telegraph reported.
Also targeted in Tehran was Evin Prison, which, according to Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz, holds political prisoners and opponents of the Islamic Republic.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar shared footage of the prison being targeted on his X account and wrote “long live freedom” in Spanish. Iran’s Mizan news outlet confirmed the Israeli attack on the prison, claiming the building had been damaged, but the situation was under control.
In Iran, there were further reports of explosions being heard in Karaj, west of Tehran, and Nour news also reported early on Monday that airstrikes had hit Parchin, a military complex southeast of Tehran.
The IDF also said today that it was in the process of conducting airstrikes on “military infrastructure” in Kermanshah, western Iran.
Other Iranian targets that the IDF says it has recently attacked include six airbases — Dezful, Hamedan, Mashhad, Shahid Bakhtiari, Tabriz, and Tehran-Mehrabad — where it says it targeted “runways, underground hangars, refueling aircraft, F-14, F-5, and AH-1 aircraft.”
The following unverified footage, said to be out of Iran, purports to show the wreckage of an Israeli drone that was brought down by air defenses over Khorramabad, Lorestan province, western Iran. While Iran’s air defenses are severely degraded, they are not eliminated and pop-up threats still exist.
Iran reported an Israeli strike on the underground nuclear site at Fordow, south of Tehran, which bore the brunt of recent U.S. airstrikes by B-2 stealth bombers, which you can read more about here.
“The aggressor attacked the Fordow nuclear site again,” Tasnim news agency reported, quoting a spokesperson for the crisis management authority in Qom province, where the site is located.
The IDF later said that the strike on Fordow had the aim of obstructing access routes to the site.
As for the aftermath of the U.S. airstrikes on Fordow, President Donald Trump has doubled down on what he says is the successful nature of the attacks, stating that “monumental damage” was done to “all nuclear sites” in Iran.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the U.S. president wrote:
“Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term! The white structure shown is deeply imbedded into the rock, with even its roof well below ground level, and completely shielded from flame. The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!”
The comments came after Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the scale of the damage underground was not yet confirmed. He said it was not clear whether Iran retained some nuclear capability.
Similarly, there are reports that other senior U.S. officials are unconvinced that the airstrikes on Fordow resulted in the destruction of the nuclear facility.
For its part, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has assessed that the U.S. airstrikes likely caused “very significant” damage to the underground areas at Fordow, although the exact extent cannot be determined at this point.
The chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, today called for IAEA inspectors to be able to return to Iran’s nuclear sites to “account for” its highly enriched uranium stockpiles.
“At this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordow,” Grossi said in a statement to an emergency meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors.
“Given the explosive payload utilized and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred,” Grossi added, referring to the U.S. bombing.
Vice President JD Vance has suggested that Iran still controls a stockpile of enriched uranium, potentially enough to produce 10 nuclear warheads. There are also reports that Iran may still have in its possession advanced centrifuges. Combined, these could open up the possibility of Tehran embarking on a more covert nuclear weapons program.
In Israel, meanwhile, the alert was sounded after 3:00 a.m. when the military said that Iran had launched a missile attack, but no direct impacts or injuries were reported.
At least one drone, apparently launched by Iran toward Israel, only made it as far as Jordan, as indicated by the footage below. This purports to show the moment of the drone’s impact in the Jordanian capital, Amman, where it injured two people. Jordan’s state news agency reported that the drone had also caused some material damage.
Another Iranian drone seems to have gone even further astray, with this imagery pointing to an Arash-2 long-range one-way attack drone coming down somewhere in Kazakhstan.
Trump brought up the possibility of regime change in Iran. His remarks follow the U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, but are at odds with statements from other key figures in his administration.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, “Regime Change,” but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Before this, Vance had insisted the United States was “not at war with Iran, we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the country was “not looking for war in Iran.”
After the U.S. airstrikes, there has been much speculation as to whether Iran will retaliate, perhaps launching attacks on U.S. bases throughout the region. Yesterday, Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that U.S. forces could be attacked in retaliation.
“Any country in the region or elsewhere that is used by American forces to strike Iran will be considered a legitimate target for our armed forces,” Velayati said in a message published by the official IRNA news agency.
So far, such retaliation hasn’t happened, although the U.S. Embassy in Qatar did issue a message to American citizens today recommending they “shelter in place until further notice.”
A similar warning was also provided by the United Kingdom, directed at its citizens in Qatar.
In the meantime, the U.S. State Department has issued a “worldwide caution” for Americans, reflecting what it says is the increased security risk to U.S. travelers or those living abroad.
In a post on its website, the State Department wrote: “The conflict between Israel and Iran has resulted in disruptions to travel and periodic closure of airspace across the Middle East. There is the potential for demonstrations against U.S. citizens and interests abroad. The Department of State advises U.S. citizens worldwide to exercise increased caution.”
Meanwhile, in what are apparently his first comments on the subject since the U.S. airstrikes, Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei continues to promise revenge against Israel, specifically.
A post on a social media account on X associated with Iran’s supreme leader read: “The Zionist enemy has made a grave mistake, committed a great crime; it must be punished and is being punished; it is being punished right now.”
Khamenei’s days as supreme leader may be numbered, however, with reports that Iran has fast-tracked succession plans amid escalating threats from Israel and the United States. With the specter of Israeli strikes and assassination threats against Khamenei, it appears that Iran may already have lined up candidates to potentially succeed him.
Speaking in Istanbul today, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country would consider all possible responses and ruled out diplomacy until it had retaliated. “The United States showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force,” Araghchi said.
According to NBC News, citing two unnamed U.S. officials, Iran sent a message to Trump at the G7 summit threatening to activate terrorist sleeper cells in the United States if Washington were to launch airstrikes. The same officials told the broadcaster that the Trump administration, as well as federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in key cities across the country, are on high alert for any potential retaliation inside the United States.
Another potential means for Iran to hit back in the wake of the U.S. strikes would be to close off the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade route through which more than a fifth of the world’s oil supply, and much of its liquefied gas, passes each day.
Speaking to Fox News, Rubio said: “It’s economic suicide for them if they do it [close the strait]. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours.”
Tehran has signaled that Iran may be willing to fight for at least two years, according to one unnamed Iranian official speaking to CNN today.
Commercial airlines continue to avoid airspace over Iran — as well as over Iraq, Syria, and Israel — and to cancel flights to and from the region after the U.S. attack on Iran over the weekend. According to Reuters, Singapore Airlines described the situation as “fluid” on Sunday as it cancelled flights from Singapore to Dubai following a security assessment.
Other airlines have canceled flights to and from the region, including Air France, British Airways, and KLM. In the days before the U.S. strikes, American Airlines suspended flights to Qatar, and United Airlines canceled flights to Dubai.
This is a developing story. Stay with The War Zone for updates.
Update, 1:45 p.m. Eastern:
According to information posted to X by Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson, U.S. fighter jets launched at least 30 missiles to destroy Iranian surface-to-air missile sites ahead of the B-2 strike over the weekend.
TWZ had previously noted that among the missiles most likely used by U.S. fighters would have been various iterations of the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) family. The AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) is the latest variant in operational U.S. service today, employed by U.S. Air Force F-16CJ Vipers, U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers, and U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C/D Hornets.
Iranian authorities today arrested a European national on suspicion of spying for Israel, according to a report from Iranian state TV. State television cited judicial authorities as saying that a spy for Israel was arrested in the western province of Hamadan, adding that the “spy is a citizen of a European country,” but provided no further details.
French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot today condemned the Israeli strike on Tehran’s Evin Prison on the grounds that it put French prisoners in danger. Writing on X, he called for the immediate end of all strikes to enable negotiation, and that he had asked for consular access to the two citizens. Evin Prison holds dual nationals as well as Westerners, often used by Iran as bargaining chips.
Update, 4:45 p.m. Eastern:
Russian ex-president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, Dmitriy Medvedev, took to social media yesterday with the assertion that a “number of countries” are ready to supply Tehran with nuclear warheads following the U.S. airstrikes on its nuclear facilities.
In response, President Trump today slammed Medvedev for that statement.
“Did he really say that or, is it just a figment of my imagination?” Trump said of Medvedev. “If he did say that, and, if confirmed, please let me know, IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Medvedev has since responded to Trump’s critique in a new post, writing, “Russia has no intention of supplying nuclear weapons to Iran.”
UPDATE: 6:08pm eastern
Trump has announced a staged ceasefire has been reached between Israel and Iran. It will occur six hours from now. After 24 hours in place, the war will be over, according to Trump, who has named the conflict The 12-Day War. Trump went on to congratulate both countries — an odd move to say the least. But nonetheless, this appears to be an off-ramp both sides have agreed to, according to Trump.
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