Intense Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran’s capital early Wednesday after it issued a warning about a new area it could target, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran’s residents to evacuate and demanded that the country surrender without conditions.
Uncertainty roiled the region and residents of Tehran fled their homes in droves on Tuesday, the fifth day of Israel’s air campaign aimed at Iran’s military and nuclear program.
UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency said for the first time that Israeli strikes on Iran’s main uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz had also damaged its main underground centrifuge facility, not just an above-ground facility, as previously acknowledged.
Israel asserts its sweeping assault is necessary to prevent Iran from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people in Iran.
Iran has retaliated by launching some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, where so far, 24 people have been killed.
A major explosion could be heard around 5 a.m. in Tehran Wednesday, following other explosions that boomed earlier in the predawn darkness.
Authorities in Iran offered no acknowledgement of the attacks, which has become increasingly common as the Israeli airstrike campaign has intensified since they began on Friday.
The Israelis earlier warned they could strike a neighbourhood south of Mehrabad International Airport, which includes residential neighbourhoods, military installations, pharmaceutical companies and industrial firms.
Successive killings of Iranian officials
Israel also claimed that it had killed Iran’s Gen. Ali Shadmani, whom Israel described as the country’s most senior remaining military commander, in Tehran.
On the fifth day of its air campaign on Tehran, the Israeli military claims to have killed Gen. Ali Shadmani, who had just been named as the head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, part of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Shadmani was little known in the country before being appointed last week to a chief-of-staff-like role as head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters following the killing of his predecessor, Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, in an Israeli strike.
Trump left the G7 summit in Canada a day early to deal with the conflict between Israel and Iran, telling reporters: “I’m not looking at a ceasefire. We’re looking at better than a ceasefire.”
When asked to explain, he said the U.S. wanted to see “a real end” to the conflict that could involve Iran “giving up entirely.” He added: “I’m not too much in the mood to negotiate.”
Writing on social media later, Trump warned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the U.S. knows where he is hiding and called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” without elaborating. Trump posted that there were no plans to kill Khamenei “at least not for now.”
Despite warning that U.S. “patience is wearing thin,” he indicated that diplomatic talks remained an option, and said he could send U.S. Vice-President JDÂ Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Iranians.
