Iran vows ‘severe punishment’ on Israel after top commander killed in airstrikes: Live updates

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that Israel will face “severe punishment” over its attack on the country.

Khamenei issued a statement confirming top military officials and scientists had been killed in the attack.

Israel ‘opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to commit a crime against our beloved country,’ Khamenei said.

In doing so, he said Israel had revealed ‘its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centers.’

‘In the enemy’s attacks, a number of commanders and scientists were martyred. Their successors and colleagues will immediately continue their duties, God willing.

‘With this crime, the Zionist regime has brought a bitter and painful fate upon itself, and it will certainly face it.’

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency had earlier quoted an anonymous official saying Iran will offer a ‘decisive’ response to Israel’s attack.

‘The response to the Israeli attack will be harsh and decisive,’ an official said.

The official added that details of Iran’s retaliation ‘are being discussed at the highest levels’ when asked whether the attack would be imminent.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that an Israeli strike hit Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.

IAEA’s head Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote on X: ‘The IAEA is closely monitoring the deeply concerning situation in Iran.

‘The Agency is in contact with Iranian authorities regarding radiation levels. We are also in contact with our inspectors in the country.’

New reports are emerging that Major General Mohammad Bagheri was also killed in the airstrikes.

Bagheri is the deputy commander in chief of the Armed Forces in Iran, making him the second highest commander after the Supreme Leader.

His death, which has not yet been confirmed would be a significant blow to Iran’s chain of command.

Netanyahu addressed President Trump in his address to the nation shortly after the attack, saying: ‘He has made clear time and again that Iran cannot have a nuclear enrichment program.

‘Today, it is clear that Iran was just buying for time.’

Israel’s strikes come days before a sixth round of talks were scheduled between Iran and the US over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Officials from both the US and Iran were due to meet this Sunday in Oman to discuss a potential agreement.

The Trump administration has been seeking a deal that would halt Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the strikes would affect plans for the talks.

While Secretary of State Rubio tried to get ahead of any potential conflict and maintain Israel acted unilaterally in striking Iran, Iranian state television aired footage of people chanting ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America.’

President Trump will convene a National Security Council meeting to discuss the Israel-Iran conflict on Friday morning.

The White House confirmed the meeting will take place at 11am local time.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio categorically ruled out any involvement from the United States in the attacks on Iran.

He said: ‘We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.’

Rubio said Israel had advised officials that they believed the strikes were a necessary measure of self defense.

‘Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel,’ Rubio warned.

Trump had earlier warned that Israel could be gearing up to attack Iran, despite ongoing negotiations over the nation’s nuclear capacity.

Iraq’s ministry of transportation has announced a ‘temporary closure of Iraqi airspace’ and complete suspension of air traffic.

Meanwhile, Israel’s airports authority said Ben-Gurion international airport, the country’s main airport, has been closed until further notice.’

Iranian state media has named nuclear scientists Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi as casualties in the latest round of attacks.

Reporting said the duo were ‘attacked their homes in targeted assassinations.’

In his celebratory address to the nation after the airstrikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Iranian leaders as ‘tyrants of Tehran’ who have ‘brazenly, openly called for Israel’s destruction.

‘They’ve backed up their genocidal rhetoric with a program to develop nuclear weapons,’ he said.

‘In recent years, Iran has produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine atom bombs, nine. In recent months, Iran is taking steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium, and if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time.

‘It could be a year, it could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.’

Netanyahu said the air strikes ‘struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.’

‘We targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb,’ he said.

‘We also struck at the heart of the Iran ballistic missile program. Last year, Iran fired 300 ballistic missiles at Israel…Soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not of hundreds, but of millions.’

The US Embassy in Jerusalem issued a directive to all employees and their families to shelter in place across Israel amid fears of a retaliatory attack.

The directive was shared by the US State Department amid the rising tensions in the Middle East.

Black smoke rose Friday over Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz though it wasn’t clear how bad the damage was.

Iranian state television briefly showed the live picture with a reporter.

Natanz is partially above ground, partially below ground, with multiple halls of centrifuges spinning uranium gas for its nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israel targeted the site in Friday’s attack. Natanz previously has been targeted by the Stuxnet cyberattack and multiple sabotage campaigns likely carried out by Israel.

Iranian state television says the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, is feared dead after an Israeli attack.

It added that one other top Guard official, as well as two nuclear scientists, were also dead.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, created after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, is one of the main power centers within the country’s theocracy.

It also controls Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles, which it has used to attack Israel twice during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Salami had warned Israel and the West against any attacks less than 24 hours before his death in a statement vowing: ‘We say today that we stand fully ready for any scenarios, situations, and circumstances.

‘The enemy sometimes threatens us with military action. We are ready, and this is the reality we have been living with for years because being prepared for a war on any scale is our job and duty.’

Salami warned Iran’s enemies ‘not to make any miscalculations’ and shot down comparisons between Iran and Palestine.

‘The enemy thinks it can fight Iran the same way it fights defenseless Palestinians  who are under an Israeli siege.

‘We are war-tested and experienced.’

Salami also noted his officials are always ‘monitoring the enemy.’

Israel has launched ‘preemptive strikes’ against Iran and declared a state of emergency as the country braces for retaliation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address that the attacks will continue ‘for as many days at it takes to remove this threat’ of Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu said that Israel targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz and the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as top nuclear scientists and officials.