Brigadier General Mohammad Bagheri, the deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces (R) and Brigadier General Hossein Salami (L), commander in chief of IRGC during the Great Prophet joint military drill of Iran’s armed forces in Saravan, Iran, on April 12, 2016.
Armin Karami | Afp | Getty Images
Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran early Friday morning local time, targeting locations it said were related to Iran’s nuclear program, sparking market fears of a wider conflict.
Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, chief of the Iranian Armed Forces and the country’s most senior military official, was killed during the strikes, alongside the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, Iranian state media reported.
The Israeli airstrikes also targeted and killed two of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, according to Iranian news outlets.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, pledged to avenge the attacks.
“With this crime, the Zionist regime has brought a bitter and painful fate upon itself, and it will certainly face it,” he said in a statement.
People gather near damaged vehicles in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025.
Majid Asgaripour | WANA | Via Reuters
Iranian media outlets reported multiple fatalities in the capital city, Tehran, along with airstrikes on the city of Natanz, which is home to a key nuclear facility. As of Friday morning, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was not impacted, and “no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz site.”
Also hit were targets in the city of Khandab, where a heavy water nuclear reactor is located, and Khoramabad, the site of a ballistic missile base.
Iran has launched around 100 drones toward Israeli territory in retaliation, an Israeli military spokesperson said, which Israel is working to intercept.
Infographic with a map of Iran showing nuclear sites, reactors and uranium mines.
Graphic by SYLVIE HUSSON, NALINI LEPETIT-CHELLA, SABRINA BLANCHARD| AFP | via Getty Images
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the nation: “This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
The country’s Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a state of emergency shortly after the strikes began and warned people that “a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future.”
The United States did not participate in the military operation, but U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed beforehand, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, noting that, “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense.”
Trump approved the withdrawal of some American personnel from the Middle East earlier this week, noting the region “could be a dangerous place” and stressing that the U.S. would prefer to negotiate a deal on nuclear enrichment than see a military strike.
Tehran has meanwhile accused Washington of not being serious in its engagement and not respecting Iran’s right to enrich uranium for what it insists are peaceful purposes.
On Friday morning, Trump said he previously warned Iran that the “United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.”
Urging Tehran to cement a nuclear deal, he added, “Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!”
Smoke rises up after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025.
Vahid Salemi | AP
It remains to be seen whether Iran and Israel will press ahead with further escalation. Historically at odds, the two sides have both ramped up war rhetoric and hostilities since the terror attack carried out by the Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas in Israel in October 2023. The Jewish state has repeatedly accused Iran of proxy interventions against it through Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi factions.
Tensions last boiled over late last year, when Iran and Israel briefly launched direct missile strikes on each other’s territories, but ultimately backed down from full-our war.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged both sides to “show maximum restraint, avoiding at all costs a descent into deeper conflict, a situation that the region can hardly afford.”
Oil prices soared amid fears of a broader regional war and concerns over the supply outlook in the crude-rich Middle East region.
Investors also turned to safe havens — which are thought to offer protection in times of heightened volatility — as the scale of the attack took markets by surprise. Gold hit an almost two-month high on the news, and U.S. Treasury prices also rose. U.S. stock futures fell, meanwhile, with Dow futures down 580 points.
— CNBC’s Vinay Dwivedi and NBC News’ Courtney Kube, Tom Winter and Ken Dilanian contributed to this report.
