Israel deployed US-made F-35 stealth fighters among its 100 jets, spy planes and refueling aircraft to conduct its largest-ever strike on Iran, which left Tehran vulnerable should war break out, a report says.
The Jewish state greenlit the use of F-35s, its most-advanced aerial weapon, to help lead operation “Day of Repentance” that bombarded military sites across Iran on Friday night, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
The four-hour operation, which was launched in retaliation over Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage against Israel on Oct. 1, also destroyed several of Iran’s missile defense-system batteries, leaving a hole in the Islamic nation’s security in a reported attempt to discourage another attack on Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued the order Friday night as his officials spoke with US Department of Defense officials to brief them on the incoming strike.
The start of Israel’s three-wave attack saw jet fighters deployed to take out air-defense batteries in Syria and Iraq, which cleared the path for the assaults to get through to Iran, according to the WSJ.
While Israel has not specified the route its fighters took, officials noted that the jets did not appear to pass through Jordan airspace, an Arab nation ally that has pushed for peace in the region.
By 3:30 a.m. local time, the second and third wave of Israeli jets began firing at Iran from within Iraqi airspace, hitting missile production sites tied to both of Tehran’s attacks on the Jewish state this year.
Iran’s Parchin military base, which once housed the country’s secret nuclear-weapons program, was among the sites confirmed to have been hit in the strike.
Iran confirmed the attacks struck its Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, with satellite photos suggesting Iran’s Tange Bijar natural gas production site in Ilam may have been hit.
After unloading their payload, the Israeli jets flew back home without suffering any losses, with Iran confirming that the strikes killed four soldiers.
The attack ultimately avoided hitting Iran’s oil and nuclear facilities, which the US and Gulf nations had warned would likely trigger all-out war in the region.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the Israeli strike Sunday while claiming the attack was neither as grand as the Jewish state claimed nor as insignificant as state media was attempting to make it seem.
Khamenei said Israel would be mistaken if it believes Iran won’t retaliate.
“They’re making a miscalculation with respect to Iran,” the ayatollah said in a statement. “They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, capability, ingenuity, and determination of the Iranian people.
“We need to make them understand these things,” he warned.
The US has defended Israel’s strike and said American assets in the Middle East are prepared to help defend the Jewish state from any retaliatory attack.
With Post wires
