Iran launched dozens of aerial drones toward Israel late Saturday night. The attack is expected to take several hours, according to the U.S. and Israel. It’s the first major response by Tehran since several missiles hit its embassy in Damascus, Syria earlier this month, killing seven. Iran blames Israel for the strike.
As of press time the drones are still en route to Israel. Additionally, drones were reportedly launched in Syria and Iraq. The attack is expected to reach Israeli air space at approximately 2 a.m. local time. Jordan, a major U.S. partner in the region, declared a state emergency and closed its airspace. Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon have also closed their airspace.
Israel said it intends to intercept drones before they can. Al-Arabiya reports that U.S. forces in Iraq are shooting down drones over Iraq and Syria, while Jordan and Saudi Arabia are mobilizing air assets. British forces are scrambling jets from Cyprus to aid in intercept operations, Al-Arabiya reports.
“We launched an operation using drones and missiles in response to the Zionist entity’s crime of targeting the Iranian consulate in Syria,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement. “The operation was carried out with dozens of missiles and drones to strike specific targets in the occupied territories.”
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Israel and Iran have long been enemies and carried out low-grade attacks against each other, but the current crisis was exacerbated by a strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1. Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander with the IRGC’s’ Quds Force, was killed in the attack, along with six others. Israel denied responsibility for the strike but Iran accuses it of the strike.
Since the Israeli-Gaza war started in October 2023, Iranian-aligned groups in Iraq and Yemen have been targeting American military installations and ships. In Iraq, Iranian-backed militias (including those that are part of the legitimized Popular Mobilization Forces) have fired on U.S. In Yemen, the Houthi movement which controls large parts of the country including the capital of Sana’a has vowed to block transit in the Red Sea for ships from Israel or aligned with Israel. It has fired on American military ships as well.
The conflict in Israel and the Occupied Territories has killed more than 34,000 people since Oct. 7.
The White House National Security Council also confirmed the drone attack. A spokesperson for the NSC said in a statement that President Joe Biden is monitoring the situation and meeting with his national security team.
“This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel’s security is ironclad,” the statement continued. “The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.”
This is a developing story.