Politics
Israel to attack ‘Iran’s underground missile sites’ in second phase of war
- Focus on bunkers storing ballistic missiles, equipment.
- One underground site struck overnight, says military.
- Analysts differ on Iran’s remaining stockpile.
Israel’s war in Iran is entering a second phase that will see its fighter jets attacking ballistic missile sites buried deep underground, two sources familiar with Israel’s military campaign said.
The joint air assault with the US in Iran is nearing the end of its first week after opening salvos killed the country’s leaders and set off a regional war with Iranian attacks in Israel, the Gulf and Iraq, and Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Israel’s military says it has hit hundreds of Iranian missile launchers above ground that could target Israeli cities. The second phase will include bunkers storing ballistic missiles and equipment, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
One said Israel aimed to neutralise Iran’s ability to launch aerial attacks at Israel by the end of the war, which was also focused on taking out the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
A military spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its attack plans. The military has previously asserted that it and the US military took control of much of Iran’s airspace in the opening days of the attacks.
In a statement on Thursday, the military said that, overnight, the Air Force struck “an underground infrastructure site used by the Iranian regime to store ballistic missiles and storage sites for missiles intended for use against aircraft.”
The military has not previously announced attacks on underground missile facilities, according to a review of its public statements since the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.
Estimates of Iran’s missile stockpile vary widely, from roughly 2,500 before the war, according to Israel’s military, to around 6,000 according to other analysts. The extent of what remains could prove critical to how the war develops. Tehran has continued to carry out missile attacks on Israel and across the region.
Douglas Barrie of the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said on Wednesday that the think tank assesses Iran still possesses some land-attack cruise missiles, precision-guided weapons that fly low to evade radar detection.
Israel’s Air Force fighter jets have carried out near-constant sorties since Saturday, accelerating further in pace after Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, drawing heavy Israeli airstrikes as far north as Beirut.
In some cases, the same Israeli warplanes have struck both Iran and Lebanon in a single operation: bombing targets in Tehran or western Iran on the way out, and striking Hezbollah sites on the way back, one of the sources familiar with the plans and an Israeli security source said.
Israeli and US officials say ballistic missile and drone launches from Iran have declined since Saturday, a decrease that they attribute in part to US and Israeli strikes on Iranian launch sites and related military infrastructure.
The Israeli military has said that the decrease could also reflect an effort by Tehran to preserve its missile stocks as it prepares for a drawn-out war of attrition.
Eran Lerman, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, said the hope from the initial week of strikes was that Iran’s ruling system would “begin to disintegrate earlier, more quickly”.
“But this has yet to happen and as long as it doesn’t, the system needs to be further and further degraded,” Lerman said.
GENEVA: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said that killings such as the reported death of Ali Khamenei raise serious concerns under international human rights law.
Speaking to reporters, Turk said that from a human rights perspective, any form of killing is unacceptable.
“From a human rights perspective, any killing of anyone is not in the interest of international human rights law,” he said.
Strike on Girls’ School Raises Concern
Turk also addressed reports of a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, a city in southern Iran, during the first day of US and Israeli attacks.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, claimed that the attack killed around 150 students, although the figure has not been independently verified.
The UN rights chief stressed that schools are civilian institutions and should never be targeted during armed conflicts.
Call for Independent Investigation
Turk called for an impartial investigation into the incident to determine the circumstances surrounding the strike, including the type of weapon used and the timing of the attack.
He said responsibility now lies with those who carried out the strikes to ensure a transparent inquiry.
Meanwhile, US officials told media that military investigators are examining the possibility that American forces were responsible, though the investigation has not yet reached a final conclusion.
The incident has intensified international concern about civilian casualties and humanitarian law violations as the conflict in the region continues to escalate.
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department published additional FBI documents describing interviews with a woman who said President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her after she was introduced to him by Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents had not been made public under previous congressionally-mandated file releases related to the late convicted sex offender because they were mistakenly marked “duplicative,” the department said.
Democrats are investigating the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
The documents released include descriptions of multiple 2019 interviews the FBI held with the woman, who alleged she was assaulted by both Epstein and Trump while she was between 13 and 15 years old.
In one interview, the woman said Epstein took her to “either New York or New Jersey” and introduced her to Trump.
The woman said she and people close to her received threatening calls over the years demanding she keep quiet that she believed were related to Epstein.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to the Epstein allegations, and the Justice Department previously said some of the documents it has released “contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.”
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of covering up details of the Epstein investigation that could negatively impact Trump.
On Wednesday, a House committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the Justice Department´s handling of the documents.
- Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashes during training.
- Jet went missing after taking off from Jorhat airbase.
- Dead pilots identified as Sq Ldr Anuj, Flight Lieutenant Duragkar.
Two pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) were killed after a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashed in India’s northeastern state of Assam, NDTV reported, citing officials.
The Indian Air Force said on Friday that a fighter jet, which was on a training mission, crashed in the northeast Indian state of Assam.
“The Su-30MKI, which was on a training mission, crashed in the area of Karbi Anglong, Assam, approx 60 km from Jorhat,” the Indian Air Force said on X.
The aircraft had gone missing shortly after taking off from the Jorhat airbase. Communication with the Russian-origin fighter jet was lost at 7:42pm, according to officials.
The crash occurred in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, around 60 kilometres from the airbase. The aircraft reportedly went down in a remote hilly area.
The IAF identified the deceased pilots as Squadron Leader Anuj and Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar.
“All personnel of the IAF express sincere condolences, and stand firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” the Air Force said in a post on X.
Local residents in the area said they heard a loud explosion from a nearby hill and saw a ball of fire shortly afterwards.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of the two pilots in the “tragic” crash.
The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a two-seater, long-range fighter aircraft developed by Russian manufacturer Sukhoi. It is produced under licence in India by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the IAF.
The aircraft was first inducted into the Indian Air Force in 1997, and the service currently operates a fleet of more than 260 Su-30MKI jets.
Similar incidents have occurred in recent years. A Sukhoi fighter jet crashed in Nashik, Maharashtra, in June 2024, while another Su-30 aircraft crashed in January 2023 shortly after taking off from the Gwalior airbase in Madhya Pradesh.
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