The Israeli military claimed on Saturday that, besides Tehran, it carried out airstrikes on an airport in Iran’s Isfahan city too, destroying a number of F-14 fighters — it did not say how many.
Attacks spanned across the Isfahan province, killing at least 11 people as US-Israeli fighter jets hit manufacturing workshops and a horse-riding club, news agency Tasnim reported. At least eight cities in the central province were hit: Isfahan, Najafabad, Aran, Bidgol, Barkhar, Khomenei Shahr, Shahreza, Falavarjan and Mobarakeh, it added.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted on social media platform Telegram about the attack on the airport: “Additionally, detection systems and air defense systems that posed a threat to Israeli Air Force aircraft were struck.”
The IDF further claimed, “This strike is in addition to the strike which dismantled 16 ‘Quds Force’ aircraft two days ago [Friday] at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran.”
Isfahan the province also houses a nuclear energy facility, and has been at the centre of American and Israeli governments’ focus during talks with Iran held until a few weeks ago.
In national capital Tehran and the province of Alborz, at least four tanker drivers were killed in Israel’s attacks on oil depots, according to the news agency Fars.
The US and Israel are also mulling whether to deploy special forces inside Iran to seize its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, according to a report by Axios. That is likely only at a “later stage”, though, after both countries decide that Iran can no longer mount a serious defence, the report added.
The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, sparking swift retaliation by the Islamic republic which responded with missile attacks across the region. The war has dragged in global powers, upended the world’s energy and transport sectors, and brought chaos to even usually peaceful areas of the volatile region, such as the UAE where Iran is attacking US bases.