Saturday, April 20, 2024

US official: Israeli strike targeted air defense radar system for Natanz nuclear facility

Three missiles were fired from Israeli fighter aircraft outside of Iran in Friday morning’s very limited strike, a senior US official told ABC News.

The Israelis were targeting an air defense radar site near Isfahan that’s part of the protection of the Natanz nuclear facility, the official said.

The first assessment is that the strike took out the site, but assessment hasn’t been completed, added the official.

The strike was intended to send a signal to Iran that Israel has these capabilities, but was not looking to escalate the situation, according to the official.

An Israeli official told The Washington Post earlier on Friday that the strike on Iran "was intended to signal to Iran that Israel had the ability to strike inside the country."

The strike was carried out in retaliation for Iran's Saturday night launch of 350 drones and missiles towards Israeli territory. A full 99% of the launches were intercepted, only five fell in Israeli territory; only one person, a Bedouin child, was injured.

An intelligence source told CNN that that initial estimates are that Iran will not respond to the attack on its territory. Despite this, reports in Israel said that the Israel's aerial defense system is at peak readiness.