Israel launched major airstrikes Friday, killing top Iranian officials and scientists, Tabriz is also attacked
\n Tehran
\nAt least 78 people were killed and 329 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the Iranian capital Tehran early Friday, local media reported.
\n\u201cThe unofficial death toll from today\u2019s terrorist attack by the Zionist regime in Tehran province is estimated at 329 injured and 78 martyred,\u201d the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars said.
\nIsrael launched a large-scale attack early Friday, deploying around 200 aircraft to target Iran\u2019s nuclear program and long-range missile capabilities. Several senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists were killed in the strikes.
\nIran has vowed \u201csevere punishment,\u201d and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to hold Israel accountable for its actions.
\nKillings in Tabriz
\nIsraeli strikes on Friday killed at least eight people and wounded 12 others in Iran\u2019s northwestern Tabriz city, airports and its surroundings, the provincial governor told Iranian news agency ISNA.
\n\u201cAt least eight people… were killed following the attacks of the Zionist regime,\u201d said Majid Farshi, governor of East Azerbaijan province, of which Tabriz is the capital.
\nIsrael launched widescale strikes against Iran on Friday, saying it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders and that this was start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.
\nIranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country\u2019s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of retaliatory missile and drone strikes.
\nIran\u2019s elite Revolutionary Guards corps said its top commander, Hossein Salami, was killed and state media reported the unit\u2019s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. Several children had been killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital, it said.
\n\u201cWe are at a decisive moment in Israel\u2019s history,\u201d Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.
\n\u201cMoments ago Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel\u2019s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.\u201d
\nIran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had \u201cunleashed its wicked and bloody\u201d hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive \u201ca bitter fate for itself\u201d.
\nAn Israeli military official said Israel was striking \u201cdozens\u201d of nuclear and military targets including the facility at Natanz in central Iran. The official said Iran had enough material to make 15 nuclear bombs within days.
\nThe United States said it had no part in the operation, which raises the risk of a fresh escalation in tensions in the Middle East, a major oil producing region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel launched major airstrikes Friday, killing top Iranian officials and scientists, Tabriz is also attacked Tehran At least 78 people were killed and 329 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the Iranian capital Tehran early Friday, local media reported. \u201cThe unofficial death toll from today\u2019s terrorist attack by the Zionist regime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-484023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n