Israel claims killing of Iranian commander as conflict enters second week

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Video shows missiles from Iran streaking skies of Israel

00:36 - Source: CNN

Video shows missiles from Iran streaking skies of Israel

00:36

• Renewed attacks: Israel and Iran exchanged fresh strikes as the conflict entered a second week with little sign of ending. Israel claimed the killing of two commanders in Iran’s elite Quds Force and attacked Iran’s nuclear research complex in Isfahan.

• A possible change of tactics: Israel reported fewer ballistic missile strikes from Iran overnight, suggesting this was a result of successful strikes on batteries. Iran says it is shifting to using precision missiles. But two drones struck Israel, rare instances of Iran breaching Israeli defenses.

• Diplomatic push: Iran’s foreign minister is in Turkey for talks, following Friday’s summit with European officials that yielded no breakthrough. Abbas Araghchi warned that US involvement would be “dangerous for everybody.”

• Trump’s deadline: President Donald Trump meanwhile indicated that his two-week timeline for a decision on US military involvement in Iran is the “maximum” amount of time — and that he could make up his mind sooner.

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French President Emmanuel Macron said France will “accelerate” negotiations between European nations and Iran, following a phone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Macron said he “expressed deep concern about Iran’s nuclear program” to Pezeshkian during the phone call on Saturday.

Foreign ministers from France, the UK and Germany met in Switzerland for talks Friday with their Iranian counterpart, which ended with no tangible agreement on how to move forward.

Earlier on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country won’t negotiate with the US while Israeli bombardment continues, warning that if the US were to get involved in the war, it would be “very dangerous for everybody.”

Israel’s military has said its air force’s fighter jets “are currently striking military infrastructure in southwestern Iran.”

This is a developing story, more to follow.

The Israeli military says it has “eliminated” Behnam Shahriyari, the second Iranian commander in the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be targeted in Israeli strikes overnight.

The Israeli Air Force killed Shahriyari in his vehicle while he was traveling in western Iran, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Saturday.

It said Shahriyari was responsible for weapons transfers from Iran to its proxies across the Middle East, and worked for years to arm various militant organizations.

Shahriyari is sanctioned by the United States and, according to the UK government, has been involved in hostile activity by an armed group backed by the Iranian government, facilitating “the destabilization of Israel, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.”

The Quds Force is an arm of the IRGC responsible for operations outside Iran and is tasked with coordinating with allied militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said it killed Saeed Izadi, another Iranian commander in the Quds Force.

In a briefing to reporters, IDF Chief Spokesperson Ephraim Defrin described Izadi and Shahriyari as being at the “forefront of the Iranian project of pushing the war into Israel’s territory.”

Potentially “prolonged campaign”: Defrin also said the Israeli Air Force continued strikes on a nuclear facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan.

Defrin said Israel’s military is engaged in “one of the most complex wars in Israel’s history” and warned the Israeli public to prepare for a “prolonged campaign” as the IDF still has “targets and goals” in Iran.

“We’ll continue until the existing threat is removed,” Defrin said.

Tehran residents have told CNN that although the Iranian capital remains relatively quiet, people are trying to return to normal life ahead of Sunday when the work week will resume.

“Things are fine. Roads are getting busier back into Tehran from other areas because the government has said work begins on Sunday,” one resident who had just returned to the city told CNN on Saturday, asking that their name be withheld.

The work week usually starts from Saturday in Iran, but the country has been largely offline since nationwide restrictions on internet access were imposed across the country on Wednesday, which the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology said was due to security concerns.

Semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday that international internet services will resume by 8 p.m. local time on Saturday, citing the communications minister.

NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors internet governance, said Saturday that its telemetry confirmed a “partial restoration of connectivity in Iran after approximately 62 hours of severe disruption.”

“While some regions have seen improvements, overall connectivity remains below ordinary levels, continuing to hinder people’s ability to communicate freely and access independent information,” it added.

Another Tehran resident, who had planned to get a haircut Saturday, told CNN: “Yesterday and today Tehran has been quieter. The city is so nice, without traffic and so many people and everything is available in abundance: Gas, food.”

While Tehran remains quiet, locals in nearby cities have reported longer queues for ATMs and bakeries, after residents from the capital arrived seeking shelter. Video from Damavand, east of Tehran, showed people queuing for bread, with one man noting the bakery was unusually busy.

Israeli strikes in Iran have killed 54 women and children, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani was cited as saying in state media.

State-linked Tasnim news agency quoted Mohajerani as saying 94 other women and children were injured since Israel started its military campaign against Iran on June 13.

It has been days since Iran has issued a full death toll from the conflict. On Sunday, the health ministry said 224 had been killed while in Israel the death toll stands at 24.

Claim hospitals hit: Iranian Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi meanwhile said Israeli strikes in Iran have hit three hospitals and killed two doctors.

State-linked Fars News Agency quoted Zafarghandi as saying “two members of the national health team — an obstetrician and a pediatrician along with her child” had been killed since Israel started its military campaign against Iran on June 13.

Seven ambulances were also damaged, and 14 emergency medical staff injured in the strikes, Jafar Miadfar, the head of Iran’s Emergency Medical Services Organization was cited as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.

Two Iranian drones penetrated Israel’s air defenses and struck sites in the north and south, according to the Israeli military, marking one of the rare instances in which one-way attack drones from Iran successfully breached Israeli air defenses.

The drone in northern Israel struck the town of Beit Shean near the Jordanian border, hitting a two-story home, according to emergency responders.

Images from the scene showed a gaping hole in the side of the building, along with its windows and doors blown out. The area around the home was littered with debris and dirt from the impact.

Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency service, said it has not found any casualties at the scene as it continues to search through the rubble.

A second drone pierced Israel’s air defenses and landed in an open area in the south of the country, according to the military.

The vast majority of drones launched from Iran since Israel launched an attack on the country have been intercepted before they reach their target.

The barrage consisted of at least six drones, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

A number of other drones that approached Israel at approximately the same time were intercepted, according to the IDF, including in the Arava desert in southern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.

Iran has launched more than 1,000 drones since Israel first launched its attack against Iran last week, an Israeli military official said.

Iran’s foreign minister has said his country cannot negotiate with the US while Israeli bombardment continues, warning that if the US were to get involved in the war, it would be “very dangerous for everybody.”

“It is obvious I cannot go to the negotiations with the United States when our people are under bombardment, under the support of the United States,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul, where foreign minister from member nations of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) met on Saturday.

He went on to call for the “aggression” to come to an end “in order for us to come back to diplomacy.”

The trip marks another round of diplomacy for Araghchi , who took part in talks with European powers in Switzerland on Friday.

The Israeli military has said it has “eliminated” Saeed Izadi, an Iranian commander in the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In a statement on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its air force targeted and killed Izadi “in a hideout in the heart of Iran, following a prolonged intelligence-gathering effort.”

“Izadi was responsible for military coordination between the senior commanders of the IRGC and the Iranian regime with key figures in the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF said.

Izadi is sanctioned by the United States and, according to the UK government, is the head of the Palestine branch of the Quds Force.

Iranian state media reported earlier on Saturday that a strike on a residential building in the central Iranian city of Qom killed two people and injured four others.

What is Quds? The Quds (Jerusalem) Force is an arm of the IRGC responsible for operations outside Iran and is tasked with coordinating with allied militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

Defense Minister Israel Katz described the strike on social media as a “a major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force,” accusing Izadi of helping plan Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

“Israel’s long arm will reach all its enemy,” Katz said.

Since October 7, Israeli government officials have sought to emphasize Hamas’s ties to Iran. In the wake of the attack, the US said Iran was surprised by the attack itself and that the US did not have direct evidence linking Iran to the planning and execution of the assault. Both Israel and the US have said that Iran is broadly culpable because of its historic support for the group.

Iran is uncertain about trusting the United States in peace talks, its foreign minister has said, suggesting President Donald Trump’s negotiations were a “cover” for Israeli attacks on his country.

Abbas Araghchi accused Washington of “a betrayal to diplomacy,” saying US officials “must show their determination for negotiating a solution,” in an on-camera interview with NBC News on Friday.

“We have come to the conclusion that negotiations by the US was in fact a cover for what the Israelis did,” he added.

Araghchi arrived in Turkey on Friday night, ahead of a Saturday meeting of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, representing the collective voice of the Muslim world.

Speaking to Iranian media in Istanbul, Araghchi said he would “make full use of this opportunity in order to make the innocent and righteous voice of the Iranian people heard.”

The minister said he also planned to meet with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.

Iran and Israel have traded fresh air attacks as their conflict pushes into a second week, with diplomatic efforts on Friday showing no signs of meaningful progress.

An Iranian official has told CNN that US President Donald Trump could end it with one call to the Israeli side – adding that Iran will only return to US negotiations if Israel stops attacking it.

This all follows fruitless efforts to de-escalate the conflict in Geneva, where top European diplomats met with their Iranian counterpart on Friday.

Here are the latest developments:

  • Israel’s latest attacks: An Iranian official has said the Isfahan nuclear research complex, Iran’s largest nuclear facility, was targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. The official said there was no leakage of hazardous materials because of the attack, but residents were advised to avoid the area so rescue personnel could do their jobs.
  • Strikes hit Qom: Two people were also killed, and four others were injured, in a direct strike on a residential building in the central Iranian holy city of Qom, according to state media reports. The news came shortly after the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun a new wave of attacks in Iran.
  • Iran’s latest strikes: Israel’s national emergency services were called to a burning building in Holon city as Iran launched a wave of missile strikes overnight. The fire was caused by shrapnel after a missile was intercepted, according to Israeli fire and rescue services. Emergency agency Magen David Adom said no injuries were reported.
  • Calls for diplomacy: An Iranian official told CNN that the US could “stop the war” with one phone call, if Trump told Israel’s leadership to stop its strikes on Iran. However, Trump told reporters in New Jersey: “It’s very hard to make that request right now if somebody is winning.”
  • Geneva talks: There were few signs of progress after a top EU official and foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday. Iran’s foreign minister said it would not re-enter negotiations with the US while it remains under attack from Israel.
  • Intelligence issues: President Donald Trump took direct aim at his director of national intelligence on Friday, saying Tulsi Gabbard “is wrong” about Iran’s efforts on obtaining a nuclear weapon. Gabbard testified to Congress in March that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon – a direct contradiction of Israel’s claims that Iran was racing toward a bomb. Asked on Friday about his intelligence community’s assessment, Trump said: “Well then, my intelligence community is wrong.”
  • In Turkey: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, representing the collective voice of the Muslim world with its 57 member states, will convene in Istanbul on Saturday. Among attendees will be Iran’s foreign minister, who said talks will include addressing “the aggression perpetrated by” Israel.

Iran will not give in easily and may want to prolong its conflict with Israel to inflict more damage on its long-time enemy, security analyst Afshon Ostovar told CNN.

“One thing that they can do is hold on and make this conflict much more costly for Israel,” said Ostovar, an associate professor at the California-based Naval Postgraduate School.

“From Iran’s perspective, it has nothing really to lose,” he said, adding that “its nuclear program is already in ashes” and its proxies in the region – Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen – had already been “degraded” by Israeli attacks in recent years.

Ostovar said Iran’s last piece of leverage might be the option of stringing out the war.

India will evacuate all of its nationals from Iran, New Delhi’s embassy in Tehran said in a post on X Saturday.

Indians in Iran were advised to contact the embassy via Telegram or emergency phone numbers.

There were 10,765 overseas Indians in Iran as of March 27, according to figures posted by India’s External Affairs Ministry.

Israel’s military said it shot down several drones on Saturday morning local time, in a fresh wave of Iranian attacks.

An alert was triggered after an aircraft was spotted flying over several valleys in northern Israel while others were intercepted in the south, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

The IDF did not specify how many drones had been launched or intercepted.

Iran rejects Israel’s claim that dwindling missile stocks have forced it to cut back on launches, a senior Iranian official has told CNN.

The official said Iran has changed its missile policy, replacing quantity with quality. Instead of firing large numbers of missiles, they said, Iran is using more advanced precision missiles against sensitive military and security centers.

It was “observed that Iran launched a missile and the missile easily made its way through American THAAD, Patriot, Arrow 3, Arrow 2, David’s Sling and the family of Iron Dome systems, striking the predetermined target,” the official said, referring to Israel’s latticework of missile defense systems.

Israel “should not be happy about the decrease in the number of missiles fired and better keep silent and merely become an observer in the face of the new balance of Iranian superior power,” they said.

Life seems to be slowly returning to normal in Tehran after many residents left in the wake of Israel’s bombing campaign and US President Donald Trump’s warning to flee the Iranian capital.

Recent strikes seem to have been limited but Iran’s air defense system is still at work over the city, especially at night.

While the streets are still much emptier than usual, more shops and even some restaurants are re-opening. Traffic is picking up again on the roads and we got into our first traffic jam on Friday, after arriving here mid-week.

There also seems to be no shortage of food or fuel. The supermarkets are open and well stocked, and we drove past several gas stations, all of which had fuel, and there was no wait time to get to the pump.

Israeli airstrikes on Saturday targeted Iran’s nuclear research complex in Isfahan, the country’s largest, the deputy provincial governor told the semi-official Fars news agency.

The deputy governor said there was no leakage of hazardous materials because of the attack, but residents were advised to avoid the area so rescue and crisis management personnel could do their jobs.

Several other areas of Isfahan province were also targeted, but no casualties have been reported, the deputy governor said.

Iranian air defenses intercepted the Israeli attacks, but some got through, according to the official’s account.

The “majority of explosions heard during the attacks were emanating from air defense systems’ engagements, and others were due to enemy attacks,” the Fars report quoted the official as saying, without naming them.

According to the semi-official MEHR news agency, Akbar Salehi, deputy for security and law enforcement at the Isfahan governor’s office, said Israel carried out attacks on several locations in the province, but the oil refinery was not hit.

Some context: Israel struck the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center in the first days of the conflict, with an Israel Defense Forces official saying last Saturday the facility sustained significant damage. The International Atomic Energy Agency said four buildings at the site were critically damaged, but a spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said damage was limited.

Explosions have been heard in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, Iranian state media reports.

The news comes shortly after the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun a new wave of attacks in Iran.

Semi-official news agency Fars reported that the city’s air defense system had been activated.

Isfahan is the home of Iran’s largest nuclear research complex, which has been previously targeted by Israeli strikes.

A strike on a residential building in the central Iranian city of Qom killed two people and injured four others on Saturday, according to reports from state media.

The strike, which hit the building’s fourth floor, was reported shortly after the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun a new wave of attacks in Iran.

The holy city of Qom is close to Iran’s secretive Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.

One of those killed was a 16-year-old, according to a statement from Morteza Heydari, spokesman for the Qom Provincial Administration, made to Iranian media.

Video geolocated by CNN shows impact damage to a building in southwestern Qom. In the video a fire can be seen burning on the upper floors of a multistory building.

At the same time, semi-official Nour News reported air defenses were active over the capital Tehran, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north.

Video released by Israel’s national emergency services showed a building on fire in the city of Holon, near commercial hub Tel Aviv, following Iran’s latest missile strikes on the country.

Israeli fire and rescue services confirmed in a statement on Telegram that they were working to extinguish a blaze on the roof of a three-story building in Gush Dan, the wider metropolitan area around Tel Aviv, which includes Holon. The statement did not specify the city.

The fire was caused by shrapnel after a missile was intercepted, according to the statement.

Emergency agency Magen David Adom said no injuries were reported.

Israel has begun a new wave of attacks in Iran, the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday, local time.

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