Tel Aviv, Apr 14:
Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in its first direct attack on Israeli territory, in a retaliatory assault that wounded a seven-year-old girl and caused minor damage at an Israeli military facility.
The late Saturday night attack set off air raid sirens in cities across Israel, including Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem, and explosions were heard as air defences intercepted the projectiles.
The Israeli military said the Iranian salvo consisted of more than 300 “killer drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles”, but that 99 percent were intercepted with help from forces from France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The launches came from Iran, as well as from Iraq and Yemen, it said.
Medics said a girl in southern Israel was wounded by shrapnel from an intercepted drone, while the military said “a small number of hits were identified, including at [an Israeli military] base in southern Israel, where minor damage was caused to infrastructure”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the attack, saying it launched the drones and missiles under Operation True Promise as part of the punishment for “the Zionist entity’s crime of targeting the Iranian consulate in Syria” on April 1.
The raid in Damascus killed 12 people, including two senior generals in the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the consulate attack.
With the missiles and drone attack, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said it now deemed the matter “concluded” and warned Israel of a “considerably more severe” response should the “Israeli regime make another mistake”.
It also warned the US to stay out of the conflict.
