Toll from US-Israel attack on Iran rises to 555, says Iranian Red Crescent

A total of 555 people have been killed over two days across Iran since the United States and Israel began attacking the country, AFP quoted the Iranian Red Crescent as saying on Monday.

“Following the Zionist-American terrorist attacks carried out in various regions of our country, 131 cities have been affected to date and, regrettably, 555 of our compatriots have been killed,” the humanitarian group said on social media.

Later on Monday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed that their missile attacks targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the headquarters of the Israeli air force commander, AFP quoted the Fars news agency as saying.

This came hours after Israel’s military said that it was intensifying its campaign against Iran, adding that it would step up strikes on “key elements of the regime”.

“We will increasingly strike the key elements of the regime and continue to intensify the damage,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said during a televised briefing, according to AFP

Natanz nuclear site hit in US-Israeli strikes: Iran

Iran’s ambassador ‌to the International Atomic Energy Agency has claimed that the country’s ⁠nuclear facility at Natanz was ⁠struck during US and ⁠Israeli military operations on Sunday, according to Reuters.

“Again they attacked Iran's peaceful, safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,” Reza Najafi told the media at a meeting of the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s board of governors.

However, Rafael Grossi, the chief of the UN watchdog said that the agency had “no indication” that any nuclear installations in Iran had been damaged or hit in the US-Israeli strikes.

“Efforts to contact the Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities ... continue, with no response so far,” Reuters quoted Grossi as saying. “We hope this indispensable channel of communication can be re-established as soon as possible.”

Three US jets downed in ‘friendly fire’

The United States said on Monday that three of its F-15E jets that were part of its military operation were downed in Kuwait “due to an apparent friendly fire incident”. The jets were “mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses”, the US Central Command said.

The central command said that there were a total of six crew members on board the jets, all of whom ejected safely, and are stable.

The conflict

On Saturday, Israel and the US launched a joint operation to “degrade the capabilities” of the Iranian government. Iran retaliated to the attacks and said that the US-Israeli operation had begun while the nuclear negotiations were on.

The attacks came amid tensions between the three countries over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel has been claiming that Iran is “closer than ever” to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

However, amid fears of a potential attack, with a heavy US military deployment off its coast in recent months, Tehran had been forced to reopen negotiations with Washington about its nuclear programme.

On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in theUS-Israeli military operation. After Khamenei’s death on Sunday, Tehran vowed revenge and fired missiles at Israel and other countries across the Gulf.

His killing further escalated an already volatile situation in the region.

On Monday, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had fired rockets and drones at Israel in response to Khamenei’s killing, with the Jewish nation responding with a barrage of strikes in Lebanon.

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