Israel launches strikes on military targets in Iran 

The Israel military says it has launched strikes on military targets in Iran, as Iranian media reported several explosions were heard in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and the nearby city of Karaj early Saturday. The Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X that it was conducting “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran, but did not elaborate. “The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th — on seven fronts — including direct attacks from Iranian soil. Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond,” the statement said. Israel’s strikes took place just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived back in the U.S. after his latest trip the Middle East. VOA asked the National Security Council whether President Joe Biden had been briefed on the explosions in Iran. Spokesperson Sean Savett did not directly respond but acknowledged the strikes. “We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st,” Savett said. A U.S. defense official told VOA “we were given a heads-up” on the strikes, “but we’re not involved.” All of the additional U.S. forces that the Pentagon had ordered to the Middle East earlier this month had arrived in the region prior to the Israeli strikes on Iran, another U.S. defense official told VOA. Earlier Friday, U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces across the Middle East, announced the arrival of additional F-16 fighter jets from Germany. The region has been bracing for an Israeli response to Iran's ballistic-missile barrage on Israel on October 1. Following that attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iranian leaders made a "big mistake" and warned that they would "pay for it." Iran's October attack involved nearly 200 ballistic missiles and was the largest direct attack on Israel from Iran’s own territory. It was the second direct attack on Israel in six months; Iran had fired missiles and drones in April in response to an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic base in Syria.  In both attacks, Israeli defense systems, supported by U.S. forces, intercepted most of the missiles, preventing significant damage. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out the October 1 attack in retaliation for the Israeli killings of three key figures: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and an Iranian commander. Earlier this month, U.S. media outlets reported that the Biden administration believed it had won assurances from Israel that it would not hit Iranian nuclear or oil sites when it carried out its retaliatory strikes on Iran, U.S. officials said. The war in Gaza began with an October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on southern Israel, during which the militants killed about 1,200 people and took 250 people as hostages. Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, is still holding about 100 hostages, with a third of them believed to be dead. Israel's counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 42,847 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with Israel saying the death toll includes several thousand Hamas militants. The United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others have designated Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations. This is a breaking story. Come back to VOANews.com for further updates. VOA's Jeff Seldin, Patsy Widakuswara and Carla Babb contributed to this report.