Iran has launched drone attacks at Israel, U.S. officials say

[Pelican Press 0]

Iran has launched drone attacks at *******, U.S. officials say

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks at the coffins of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were ******* in the ******** airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, during a ******** ceremony in Tehran, Iran April 4, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme 

WANA News Agency | Via Reuters

Iran on Saturday launched attacks against *******, according to U.S. officials, escalating long-standing tensions between the two nations that have the potential to trigger a regional war.

“Iran has begun an airborne ******* against *******,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a Saturday statement. “The ******* States will stand with the people of ******* and support their defense against these threats from Iran.”

******* Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday that ******* would work “in close coordination” with the U.S. and regional partners to intercept the launches.

“We are monitoring the threat in the airspace. It is a threat that takes several hours to reach the territory of the State of *******,” he added.

The Biden administration is expecting Iran’s ******* to target ******** government sites, not civilian or religious sites and not U.S. assets in the area, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The administration is anticipating the ******* to involve 100 drones, dozens of cruise missiles and dozens of ballistic missiles, one of the officials added.

Ahead of the attacks on Saturday, President Joe Biden was en route back to the White House, earlier than initially scheduled, to meet with his national security team, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid the growing prospect of an Iranian strike.

Earlier on Saturday,

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seized a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship with links to ******* in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route. The White House

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the move shortly after.

In anticipation of the attacks, airspaces in ******* and throughout the region were being temporarily shut down.

******* also announced that beginning on Sunday, it would close schools and limit gatherings to 1,000 people in certain areas.

Strains between Iran and ******* have been heating up since the start of the war in Gaza in October, and especially over the past several weeks after Iran accused ******* of perpetrating an ******* on its consulate in Damascus on April 1.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a Saturday statement that the missile and drone launches were “in response to the ******* by the Zionist Regime.”

Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously pledged to retaliate against ******* for the Damascus strike and *******, in turn, threatened a

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of its own. ******* has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the Damascus *******.

“If Iran attacks from its territory, ******* will react and ******* in Iran,” ******** Foreign Affairs Minister ******* Katz wrote in a Wednesday

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on X, tagging the Ayatollah’s X account.

Given Iran’s various warnings, the White House had been expecting an Iranian strike and had been communicating with ******* to ensure they would be prepared to defend themselves.

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