The US and Israel yesterday hit Iran’s capital and other cities in multiple airstrikes on the fifth day of the war with Iran.
Israel targeted the Iranian leadership and security forces, while the Islamic Republic responded with missile barrages and drone attacks on Israel, and across the region.
Tehran residents woke to dawn blasts and Iranian state television showed the ruins of building in the center of the capital. The Shiite seminary city of Qom and multiple other cities were also targeted.
Photo: AFP
With fighter jets roaring overhead, those still in Tehran looked anxiously to the skies. One man, who ran a clothing shop, said he did not know what to do.
“If I leave the city, how am I supposed to earn money and survive?” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The Israeli military said one of its F-35 stealth jets shot down a piloted Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter over Tehran.
It also said that Israeli air defenses were activated to intercept Iranian missiles fired at targets across the country, while explosions were heard across Jerusalem.
The tempo of the strikes on Iran was so intense that authorities postponed the mourning ceremony for Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the conflict, Iranian state television reported.
Meanwhile, an Iranian naval frigate was reported in distress off the coast of Sri Lanka, prompting authorities there to respond and rescue 32 people, Sri Lanka officials said.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the ship, which Sri Lankan authorities identified as the IRIS Dena, and was armed with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes.
The US military said earlier that it had already destroyed 17 Iranian vessels and that its goal was sinking “the entire navy.”
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the US-Israel campaign is finished.
However, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said on X yesterday that whoever Iran picks as the country’s next supreme leader would be “a target for elimination.”
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