CNN
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Israel has carried out a strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN on Friday, which threatens to push the region deeper into conflict. The target was not nuclear, the official added.
Iran's air defense systems were activated in several locations after three explosions were heard near an airport and a military base in the Iranian city of Isfahan, state media reported early Friday.
Iran's semi-official FARS news agency said three explosions were heard near a military base northwest of Isfahan where warplanes are stationed.
“The defense is being activated in response to an object that could be a drone,” the sources told FARS news.
The news agency reported that the possible target of the blast was a military radar, and the blast shattered several windows of office buildings in the area.
Tensions are high across the Middle East after decades of shadow conflict between Israel and Iran.
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdullahian said the blast came hours after the news. told CNN If so Israel Any further military action against Iran would be an “immediate and maximum level” response.
His comments followed Tehran's unprecedented attack on Israel last week in response to Israel's airstrike on Iran's embassy in Syria.
Before Friday's Israeli strike, the U.S. expectation was that the country would not target civilians or nuclear facilities, another senior U.S. official told CNN.
CNN used to be there reported Israel told the US its response would be limited. U.S. intelligence has suggested that Israel is weighing a short and limited strike inside Iran because they feel the unprecedented scale of the Iranian attack requires some form of kinetic action to respond.
The range of targets was “never specified in precise terms, but nuclear and civilian locations were not clear in that sense,” the second official added.
The United States has been urging Israel not to retaliate against last weekend's Iranian attack, which President Joe Biden called “unprecedented” on Thursday. A second official said the U.S. “has not given a green light” to an Israeli response.
Iranian state media Press TV reported that outbound flights from several airports in Iran had been canceled, an Iranian official said.
“Flights to Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz, West, Northwest and Southwest airports have been suspended,” the public relations director of the Iranian Airports Company told state-run Mehr TV.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar showed several planes diverted into Iranian airspace early Friday morning on the 24th. CNN counted at least eight flights.
Citing local sources, FARS reported that an explosion was heard in the city of Kahjawarstan, northwest of Isfahan.
According to FARS, Kahjawarstan is located near Isfahan Airport and is the “eighth fighter base of the Air Force”.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
