Attacks in Iran will continue “as long as necessary”. At least 40 dead in girls’ school

An Israeli security source announced that attacks on Iran will continue “as long as necessary.” Iranian media have reported attacks across the country, and there are at least 40 dead in an attack on a girls’ school. Images on social media show devastation in Tehran.

The Israeli army said it attacked “hundreds of military targets Iranians, including missile launchers” in the western region of Iran, after the start of the operation conducted in coordination with the United States against the Islamic Republic.

“Let us now proceed with our operationsfor as long as necessary”, declared the Israeli source, who spoke to journalists on the condition of not being identified, according to the news agency France-Presse (AFP).

The same source added that the , launched this Saturday by Israel and the USA, aims to “ensure that the Iranian regime can no longer compromise the stability of the region and international stability in the broadest sense”.

“In parallel with air strikes in Iran, the anti-aircraft defense system identifies and currently intercepts threats launched from Iran towards the State of Israel”, added the army, cited by AFP.

Upon announcing the operation, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahusaid he was targeting the “existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran”.

The President of the United States, Donald Trumpsaid in turn, in a publication in Social Truth, that the operation aimed to “eliminate imminent threats” of Iran and that the hour of freedom was within reach of the Iranians.

“To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the armed forces and the entire police force, I say today that must lay down their arms and have total immunity or otherwise face certain death,” Trump added, in a statement from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The joint and coordinated military operation between the United States and Israel, which was called “Operation Epic Fury” and which, according to Israel, was planned for months, hit multiple targets across Iran.

Iranian media reported that there had been attacks across the countrynamely Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, and Kermanshah. At the end of the morning it was possible to see a column of smoke rising from the capital, Tehran.

Multiple explosions rocked central Tehran.

— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish)

According to Politico, which quotes an American official, the United States launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles from warships within the scope of the operation, in which they were also involved fighter planes.

Images from the Mehr news agency show the chaos after airstrikes which devastated parts of Tehran, with rubble fires and damaged buildings across the capital.

🐝 BREAKING: Fresh footage from Mehr News Agency captures the chaotic aftermath of US and Israeli airstrikes devastating parts of Tehran with rubble fires and damaged buildings across the capital.

— The News Bee (@XTheNewsBeeX)

Iranian authorities have meanwhile denounced the death of at least 40 people following a Israeli bombing of a school in the province of Hormozgán, in the south of the country, which also caused 48 injuries.

The most recent balance released by Iranian public radio, IRIB, does not specify an exact number, although in a previous estimate the governor of Minab County pointed to at least 24 students killed.

IRIB identifies the injured as students at Shajare Tayebé primary schoolwhere there were around 170 students, without the Israeli Army having commented on these accusations so far.

“Nos Today’s attacks by the Zionist regime against the city of Minab, a girls’ primary school was directly hit and, so far, there have been around 40 deaths”, announced the deputy governor of the southern province of Hormozgan, Ahmad Nafisi.