Iran is retaliating by launching swarms of drones after the Israeli military unleashed strikes on Tehran late Thursday that have taken out an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) chief, along with at least two other top commanders.
“That [Zionist] regime should anticipate a severe punishment. By God’s grace, the powerful arm of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces won’t let them go unpunished,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday night in a post on social platform X.
Iran has launched over 100 drones toward Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Israeli military added that it has continued to shoot down the drones.
“All [aerial] defense arrays have been operating to intercept the threats,” IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said in a statement Friday morning. “This is a different event to what we’ve experienced thus far, and we’re expecting difficult hours.”
The retaliation from Iran came after Israel launched a series of strikes against Iranian military and nuclear targets. The Israeli military took out IRGC chief Hossein Salami, senior IRGC commander Gholam Ali Rashid, along with two prominent nuclear scientists — Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded video that the operation “would last “as many days as it takes.” The Israeli military said the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” was orchestrated to prevent Iran from being able to conceive a nuclear weapon.
President Trump reiterated his warning to Iran Friday morning that the Islamic republic should agree to a nuclear deal with the U.S. or it would face far harsher consequences as an alternative.
“There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” the president added. “No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
He also suggested in a later post that the latest strikes could offer the nation a “second chance.”
The U.S. has negotiated for weeks with Iran over forming a new nuclear deal. The two sides completed five rounds of talks and were set to meet in Oman for the sixth round on Sunday prior to the latest attack by Israel. Iran said Friday that it would pull out of the next scheduled meeting that was set to take place in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
The news also comes after the Trump administration signaled the U.S. would scale back its personnel in the Middle East.
