Updated June 13, 2025 at 07:40 AM ET
AMMAN, Jordan and TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel launched air strikes into Iran early Friday, targeting the country’s nuclear facilities and killing top military leaders, officials and nuclear scientists. The attack prompted Iranian retaliatory strikes as the region braced for further military escalation.
Israel launched the attacks over its concerns about Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
On Thursday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog declared Iran isn’t complying with nuclear non-proliferation agreements aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons. Iran reacted, saying it would create a new uranium enrichment facility. Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes.
The Israeli strikes killed three top Iranian military leaders and several other officials and nuclear scientists ahead of planned negotiations in Oman on Sunday aimed at addressing international concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel targeted Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz as part of its operation “Rising Lion.”
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video message early Friday, adding that the operation would “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s survival.”
He said the operation would continue for “as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform Friday morning, President Trump urged Iran to reach a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left.”
The top Iranian officials killed in Friday’s attack include the military’s chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, a major blow to Iran’s military chain of command.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the strikes.
Rafael Grossi, the chief of the IAEA,said the agency was in contact with Iranian officials to monitor radiation levels at the Natanz enrichment facility. The extent of damage at the facility is not yet clear.
In the hours following the airstrikes,oil prices surged.
Iran retaliates
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Iran launched 100 drones toward Israel, which it was working to intercept.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel had “prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate” and vowed a “harsh punishment.”
Air raid sirens went off across Israel at around 3 a.m. local time Friday as a preemptive warning to Israelis to prepare for Tehran’s response. Supermarkets were packed with people stocking up on water and other supplies. Schools were closed and major events, including the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, were canceled.
Israel said it was also temporarily shutting its diplomatic missions around the world.
Jordan, Israel, Iran and Iraq closed their airspace to civilian traffic while other countries diverted or canceled flights.
Air raid sirens sounded in Jordan with announcements from mosques advising Jordanians to seek shelter. The government of Jordan, which neighbors Israel, said it had intercepted several missiles and drones overflying the country Friday morning.
Jordan, Israel, Iraq and Iran halted all civilian air traffic some of the busiest airports in the Arab Gulf canceled flights due to the risks potentially posed by missiles.
Trump urges Tehran to strike a deal “before it is too late”
Trump warned Iran on Friday that “it will only get worse” and urged Tehran to “make a deal, before there is nothing left” in his first comments since Israel launched the strikes on Iran.
Trump said he was giving the nation “chance after chance to make a deal” on its nuclear program and said that the alternative “would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told.”
Trump is slated to meet with his National Security Council on Friday in the Situation Room, according to his daily schedule, the White House said.
Earlier on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration would not tolerate an Iranian nuclear weapons program but that the U.S. was “not involved” in the Israeli attack on Iran.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement early Friday.
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
This comes after the State Department, on Wednesday, said it had ordered all non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to evacuate over rising tensions with Iran. It also authorized the departure of military dependents at other sites across the Middle East due to heightened security concerns.
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