Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Credit: AFP
Iran said on Saturday it will “respond decisively” after Israel and the United States launched strikes on the country despite talks underway on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond decisively to the aggressors,” a foreign ministry said in a statement, insisting Iran had done “everything necessary to prevent war”.
“Just as we were ready for negotiations, we are now more prepared than ever to defend the Iranian nation,” it said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said a first wave of missile and drone attacks had been launched at Israel, after the United States and Israel had struck Iran.
“The first wave of widespread missile and drone attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the occupied territories has begun,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement, referring to Israel.
Bombing hits Iraq base
A bombing that targeted an Iraqi military base housing a pro-Iran group caused casualties, a security official and sources in the former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi told AFP.
The Jurf al-Sakher base in southern Iraq belongs to Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) but mostly hosts the powerful pro-Iran group Kataeb Hezbollah.
“The bombing targeted the 47th brigade of Kataeb Hezbollah,” a source in the Hashed al-Shaabi told AFP. A security official and another Hashed source confirmed that the base was targeted.
All sources reported casualties.
Two killed in attack
A bombing that targeted an Iraqi military base housing a pro-Iran group killed at least two people, Iraqi authorities said Saturday.
The United States and Israel have launched strikes against Iran, with US President Donald Trump vowing to “annihilate” the country’s navy and missile sites.
The Jurf al-Sakher base, also known as Jurf al-Nasr, in southern Iraq belongs to Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a former paramilitary group now integrated into the regular army.
But the base mostly hosts the powerful pro-Iran group Kataeb Hezbollah.
A source from Kataeb Hezbollah told AFP that “there are two martyrs from Kataeb and another five wounded in the aggression on the Jurf al-Nasr base.”
The Iraqi government’s security media cell announced that “at 11:50 am (0850 GMT), the Jurf al-Nasr area… was targeted by several airstrikes, resulting in the martyrdom of two people.”
It also wounded three others.
The Hashed al-Shaabi confirmed the attack and the casualties.
A source in the Hashed al-Shaabi told AFP: “It is not clear yet if the attack was carried out by the Americans or the Israelis”.
The US-blacklisted Kataeb has several brigades that operate within the Hashed al-Shaabi. It is also part of the Iran-backed so-called “axis of resistance” and has a reputation for acting on its own.
The group warned the US on Thursday of “immense losses” were it to start a war in the region, and it urged its fighters “to prepare for a potentially long war of attrition”.
AFP
