Israeli Official Rejects Reports Two Israeli Jets Downed By Iran

An Israeli official rejected reports that Iran had shot down two Israel fighter jets as “fake news” after Israel carried out a wave of air strikes on the Islamic republic’s military and nuclear sites Friday.

“The reports circulating about two Israeli warplanes being shot down are fake news,” the official said on condition of anonymity after Iranian state media reported that Iran’s forces had downed the two jets in Iranian skies.

Earlier, Iranian state media said the country’s forces downed two Israeli fighter jets on Friday, during a massive Israeli air raid.

“At least two Israeli fighter jets were shot down in Iranian skies,” the official IRNA news agency reported, without elaborating.

The attacks started in the early hours of Friday, a day of rest and prayer in Iran, and continued through the day, on various sites.

A key target was a vast underground nuclear site in Natanz, which Israel hit several times, Iranian state television said.

Radiation levels outside the facility “remain unchanged”, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said.

Israel said it struck another important nuclear site in Isfahan, where Iranian news agency Mehr reported a “massive explosion” late Friday.

Top brass killed included the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, and the chief of staff of its armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri, with replacements swiftly named by supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The Revolutionary Guards said that its aerospace commander, Amirali Hajizadeh, was also killed. He was in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile forces.

Iranian media said several nuclear scientists were killed.

State media said senior Khamenei adviser Ali Shamkhani was hurt in one of the strikes.

Additional strikes hit sites in Iran’s northwestern East Azerbaijan province, with 18 people killed there, state news agency IRNA said.

The Israeli raids will “continue as many days as it takes”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

A military spokesman said “more than 200 targets” were hit.

Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said “there is currently no plan to kill” Khamenei and other political leaders.

Internet restrictions were imposed across Iran, the country’s communications ministry said, adding they would be lifted “once normalcy returns”.

AFP

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