The Israel Defense Forces announced on Saturday that it had “established aerial superiority from western Iran to Tehran,” allowing Israeli aircraft to operate freely across a wide swath of territory.
This unprecedented freedom of action was achieved by systematically destroying Iranian radar installations, surface-to-air missile batteries and command centers, making it possible for Israeli jets and drones to identify and strike additional targets, including mobile ballistic missile launchers poised to fire at Israel before they could be launched.
The Israeli Air Force overnight Friday attacked dozens of targets in Iran, including surface-to-air missile infrastructure, as part of the ongoing operation to destroy the Islamic Republic’s aerial defenses.
“For the first time since the beginning of the war, over 1,500 km. from Israeli territory, the IAF struck defense arrays in the area of Tehran.
We chose to take action against an existential threat to our civilians, with professionalism, determination and precision,” said IAF commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar.
“Activities like these require complicated coordination and collaboration between different sources and capabilities in the force. The IAF will continue to operate in all arenas, in offense and in defense, as the long strategic arm of the IDF,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, the IDF carried out airstrikes on many Iranian military sites, including the Hamadan and Tabriz airbases in western Iran.
According to the IDF, dozens of additional targets were attacked and dismantled, including components of Iran’s aerial defense system, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and surface-to-surface missile launchers.
“The State of Israel has the obligation to defend its civilians and will continue to do so wherever necessary, as it has done before,” the military said in a statement.
The IDF attacked the Islamic Republic’s aerial-defense array and ballistic launch sites, the Israeli military said on Friday.
“Air Force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the Military Intelligence Directorate, in recent hours carried out a wide-scale strike targeting the Iranian regime’s air defenses in western Iran,” it stated on Friday morning.
As part of the strikes, “dozens of launchers, surface-to-surface missile storage facilities, and additional military sites were destroyed,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said later in the day. At one of the sites struck in western Iran, “a unique launch mechanism was embedded within shipping containers,” said the statement about the attacks on ballistic targets.
Dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers were also destroyed, the IDF also said, noting that the strikes on air defenses were aimed at improving the IAF’s operational freedom in Iranian airspace.
“Throughout the war, the IDF has systematically targeted the air defense systems of the Iranian regime and its proxies across the Middle East,” it said.
More than 200 Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” opening strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program early on Friday.
The IDF said the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” vowing to stop “the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”
On Friday morning, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that the IDF would “continue its efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear program and remove threats to the State of Israel.
“Iran will pay an increasingly heavy price the longer it continues its aggressive activities,” the Israeli defense minister continued.
“The precise strike on top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian army and nuclear scientists—all involved in advancing the plan to destroy Israel—sends a strong and clear message: Whoever works toward Israel’s destruction will be eliminated,” he warned.