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Israel-Iran live updates: Israeli missile has struck Iran, US officials say - BBC News Israel-Iran live updates: Israeli missile has struck Iran, US officials say - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
A nuclear and chemical weapons expert has told the BBC the selection of Isfahan, Iran's second city, as a potential target was "very significant". Nafiseh Kohnavard
Hamish De Bretton Gordon, a former commander of UK and Nato nuclear forces, notes the city has many military bases around it - with one of them apparently being the target overnight. BBC Persian correspondent
"[The reported attack] was fairly near to where we believe Iran is building nuclear weapons, so I expect it was a nod to them," he tells BBC News. Iranians woke up to reports of a "micro drones" attack on a military
De Bretton Gordon goes on to make the case the purpose of the strikes was a "very much a demonstration of capability and perhaps intent". site in Isfahan, central Iran.
Iran fires 300 plus miles at Israel, they virtually all get shot down. Israel fires one, perhaps two missiles, at an Iranian target - which appears to have got through and caused damage." Some western officials with knowledge of
He adds that Israel "vastly overmatches" Iran in conventional military power, so Tehran would prefer to use proxies for attacks and avoid going "toe to toe with Israel, where it knows it would get a real hammering". Israel’s possible retaliation against Iran’s unprecedented drone and
On the Iranians downplaying the significance of the attack, De Bretton Gordon says they don't want to acknowledge that any Israeli missiles have got through their "very antiquated" air defence systems and hit targets. missile attack on Israel believe that this is only “the first stage”.
“The strategy is: Minor attack to make Iran react for a major
response on the nuclear sites”, according to a western diplomat in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a western military official says that based on reports from
Syria and Iran - indicating that some essential radars were the target of
drone strikes in both countries, “Israelis are kind of mirroring Iran and its
allies like Hezbollah by first trying to destroy radars, creating false or
delusive targets as well as trying to damage the radars to disable interception
systems," they said.
There is still a lot of contradictory information coming out
from Iran regarding the incident, with IRGC-linked media Tasnim denying “any attack on Iran” quoting
“informed sources".
While some Iranian officials told media that “there won’t be any
reaction from Iran to the incident”.
But the question is, was this really Israel’s expected retaliation?
Western officials I talked to believe it was not. They tell me it is only a
“trap” to “test the waters.”
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