JERUSALEM — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that Israel will face a “severe punishment” over its attack on the country.
Khamenei issued a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. It confirmed that top military officials and scientists had been killed in the attack.
Israel “opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centers,” Khamenei said.
Israel attacked Iran’s capital early Friday in strikes that targeted the country’s nuclear program and raised the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq, with multiple sites around the country hit.
The leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed, Iranian state television reported, in a major body blow to Tehran’s governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of the nations’ long-simmering conflict. An anchor read a statement saying: “The news of assassination and martyrdom of Gen. Hossein Salami was confirmed,” but did not elaborate. Another top Guard official, as well as two nuclear scientists, were also feared dead.
Israeli leaders said the attack was necessary to head off what they described as an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, and they warned of a reprisal that could target civilians in Israel.
In Washington, the Trump administration, which earlier cautioned Israel against an attack amid continuing negotiations, said that it had not been involved in the attack and warned Iran against retaliations against U.S. interests or personnel.
Multiple sites in the capital were hit in the attack, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said targeted both nuclear and military sites. Also targeted were officials leading Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal.
Sounds of explosions were heard again within hours. It wasn’t immediately clear if it was air defense systems going off or another attack.
The assault came amid warnings from Israel that it would not permit Tehran to build a nuclear weapon, though it remains unclear how close the country actually is to achieving that.
