Latest news with #IsraeliSpies
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
IRGC kills one woman, wounds 12 in Iran while looking for 'Israeli spies,' human rights group says
The report from the Islamic Republic-backed news source claims that the five spies were foreign nationals and "directly affiliated with the Zionist regime's intelligence services." One woman was killed and 12 others wounded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to Haalvsh, a human rights group based in Sistan and Baluchestan region, which uploaded documentation of the incident on X/Twitter on Wednesday. The attacks took place in the village of Gonich, which is located in southeastern Iran, and targeted Baloch women and children. The human rights organization also referred to a report published by the IRGC-owned Tasnim News Agency claiming to have pursued five Israeli spies in the area, which the organization describes as "false" and "lacks names, images, accurate details, and credibility." The report from the Islamic Republic-backed news source claims that the five spies were foreign nationals and "directly affiliated with the Zionist regime's intelligence services." They added that the suspects "managed to escape and are currently on the run." Haalvsh said the report was a "clear attempt to cover up the repression of ordinary citizens and justify this crime against Baloch civilians." The human rights organization then cited eyewitnesses and other sources saying that Gonich was attacked with drones and military vehicles. The one person killed in the attack was a 40-year-old woman, while another woman, 21, lost her fetus due to being kicked by IRGC forces. The other wounded are all between the ages of 16 and 50, all of whom were Gonich residents, according to Haalvsh. The report by Tasnim and other IRGC-backed media is unreliable and used as propaganda to erase the crimes of the Islamic Republic, the human rights organization said, and called on other human rights organizations abroad to investigate the IRGC attack in Gunich and to further look into the death and injuries of civilians in the area.
Sky News
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
US strikes: How much damage has been done to Iran's nuclear facilities?
Three of Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities - Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan - were targeted in US airstrikes on 22 June. The prime target of the attacks was Iran's most advanced facility at Fordow, suspected of being used to enrich uranium close to what's needed for a nuclear bomb. Satellite images from the aftermath of the US strikes suggest at least six bombs were dropped there. The secure nuclear facility, home to Iran's main enrichment site, is buried deep under a mountain. So exactly how much damage was done is unknown, perhaps even to Iran, which appears to have evacuated the site. The specific location of the strikes and the bombs used gives us an indication. America used the 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, or a GBU-57 - commonly known as a "bunker buster". The bunker buster is the only missile that had a chance of destroying the Fordow facility, and American planes were needed for them to be used. Blueprints from Iran's Nuclear Archive, which date from before 2004 and were seized by Israeli spies in 2018, suggest the bombs targeted the tunnels under the Fordow site. The access tunnels overground lead to a 250 metre long hall which is thought to contain the uranium enrichment centrifuges, and well as the location of what is thought to be ventilation shafts. Iran is thought to have likely moved any enriched uranium from the facility before the strikes occurred. But if the ventilation shafts were hit, that would allow the bombs to penetrate as far as possible and hit the centrifuge hall itself. Iran's major nuclear facilities seriously damaged, if not completely destroyed Tom Clarke Science and technology editor @t0mclark3 The loss of industrial-scale centrifuge "cascades" used to enrich uranium will certainly derail any imminent deadlines in weaponisation the Islamic Republic may have set itself - more on that below. But it has already amassed a sizeable stockpile of highly enriched uranium and may even have already enriched some of it to the 90% or so needed to make fissile material necessary for a bomb. And despite strikes on industrial scale facilities that have taken decades to generate that stockpile, the material itself weighs less than half a tonne. Moving it, splitting it up, concealing it, is not beyond the wit of a nation that expected these assaults may be coming. Iran's nuclear programme is also more than its large-scale facilities. Iran has been developing nuclear expertise and industrial processes for decades. It would take more than a concerted bombing campaign to wipe that out. The final steps to "weaponise" highly enriched uranium are technically challenging, but Iran was known to be working on them more than 20 years ago. Iran also does not require industrial-scale facilities like those needed to enrich uranium, meaning they could be more easily concealed in a network of smaller, discrete lab-sized buildings. But what's far from clear is whether Iran had actually taken steps towards weaponisation in recent years. Recent US intelligence assessments indicated that it hadn't. Iran's leaders knew that very significant moves towards making a bomb would be seen as a major escalation by its neighbours and the international community. For a long time, a key deterrent to Iran developing a nuclear weapon has been an internal political one. It's possible of course that position may have been shifting and these latest strikes were designed to disarm a rapidly weaponising Iran. But it's also possible the attacks on its nuclear programme may be forcing a previously tentative government to push harder towards making a nuclear bomb. Fordow is only one of three nuclear facilities targeted in America's strike, however, and one of seven that have been targeted since the conflict began. Natanz's uranium enrichment facility, about 140 km south of Fordow, had been subject to multiple Israeli strikes before America's advance. Israeli raids targeted surface buildings, including stores of enriched uranium. However, post-strike radiation monitoring suggested there was little, if any, nuclear material there. At the weekend, Americans dropped bunker-buster bombs there too, targeting thousands of enrichment centrifuges operating in bunkers below. Then there is the Isfahan complex. Again, Israeli missiles destroyed a number of buildings there last week. And at the weekend, US cruise missiles targeted others, including the uranium conversion plant. At the weekend, Americans also dropped bunker-buster bombs there, targeting thousands of enrichment centrifuges operating in bunkers below. Speaking from the White House after the attacks, Donald Trump said facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated". But experts suggest it could take more to destroy it entirely. "This is a very well-developed, long-standing programme with a lot of latent expertise in the country," said Darya Dolzikova, a proliferation and nuclear security expert at RUSI, a UK defence and security thinktank "I don't think we're talking about a full elimination at this point, certainly not by military means."
Daily Telegraph
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Telegraph
Secret drones, smuggled missiles: How Israel attacked Iran
Don't miss out on the headlines from Middle East. Followed categories will be added to My News. Israeli spies smuggled missiles and secretly hid explosive drones deep inside Iran in a series of covert operations leading up to Friday's deadly onslaught – before tricking military leaders into gathering for a meeting so they could be wiped out. Intelligence agents with Mossad, Israel's top spy agency, started infiltrating the heart of Iran several months back in order to pull off the surprise attack aimed at obliterating Iranian nuclear and military facilities, as well as a swath of top military commanders. An explosion from an Israeli air strike on Iran during Operation Rising Lion. Picture: IDF The spy agency planted the explosive drones inside Iran ahead of time as they laid the groundwork for the major strikes, according to Israeli security sources. Agents also managed to smuggle precision weapons into central Iran so Israel could target Tehran's defences from within. The stealth campaign, dubbed Operation Rising Lion, was eventually conducted in three separate operations early Friday local time – with the airstrikes each targeting specific weaponry and defence systems in Iran, one Israeli security source told The New York Post. Commando units deployed precision-guided weapons near Iran's surface-to-air missile defences and targeted the Iranian systems. Damage at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. Picture: Airbus defence and space A second operation set up strike systems and mounted technology onto vehicles that were launched at Iranian air defence systems. The final operation targeted Iran's surface-to-surface missile launchers at a base outside of Tehran when the explosive-laden drones were activated. The unmanned aerial vehicles flew to the base and destroyed the launchers that had 'posed a threat to Israeli strategic and civilian targets.' The sabotage operations allowed Israel's airstrikes to destroy radars and other surface-to-air defences. Nuclear plants and uranium enrichment facilities were also targeted. The damaged Natanz nuclear facility in Iran in the aftermath of the Israeli attack. Picture: Airbus defence and space Roughly 200 aircraft were involved in the initial attack on about 100 targets, Israel's military said. The attack hit several sites, including Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air. Later in the morning, Israel said it had also destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Several high-ranking Iranian officials were killed in the strikes – including Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard; Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the country's military; Gholam Ali Rashid, head of Iran's emergency command; and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force. Israel was able to trick some top commanders of Iran's air force into gathering for a meeting before they were targeted, an Israeli official told Fox News. Satellite images confirm significant damage at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility after Israeli strikes during Operation Rising Lion. Picture: Airbus defence and space 'We carried out specific activities to help us learn more about them, and then used that information to influence their behaviour,' the official said. 'We knew this would lead them to meet — but more importantly, we knew how to keep them there.' It wasn't immediately clear how Israel managed to lure the Iranian officials together. 'Significant intelligence was gathered and surveillance was conducted to incriminate senior members of the Iranian defence establishment and nuclear scientists who were eliminated,' a source told The New York Post. 'This was carried out alongside a covert operational campaign targeting Iran's strategic missile array.' The unprecedented strikes appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the operation, saying the effort was to 'roll back' Iran's threat to Israel's 'very survival.' 'If we don't act now, we simply won't be here. We have internalised the lessons of history. When an enemy says he intends to destroy you — believe him,' he said. 'When the enemy develops the capabilities to destroy you — stop him.' Iran quickly called the barrage of strikes a 'declaration of war,' as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of 'severe punishment' and President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed to make 'Israel regret its foolish act.'
