Israel-Iran War: Uh, About Last Night ...
Did Israel retaliate against Iran's nuclear program for its attack last week? Will we need a Diplomatic Morning After Pill, or maybe we’ll never know?
Israeli Air Force F-35 “Adir” Stealth fighter with bomb bays open. (Photo: AFP)
Just before dawn at GMT+3, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) is reported to have carried out an airstrike on a single target near the Iranian city of Isfahan. Isfahan is an ancient city in northern Iran, approximately 200 miles south of the capital, Tehran. It is also the gateway to the Iranian nuclear weapons program complex at Natanz, which lies in Ahmadabad, 62 miles to the north/northeast of Isfahan.
The IAF flew over southern Syria and Iraq. Just before the Iran Strike group left Israeli airspace, an IAF force flew to the Damascus area, destroying air defenses and radars to prevent them and their Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) liaison officers from knowing what was heading east. At the same time, the United States, which technically controls Iraq’s air defenses and airspace, flew a tanker mission to support US fighters and perhaps even Israel’s assault force. The Israelis likely flew a straight line and launched their weapons in the vicinity of the Iraq border. Iranian air defense radars, if they were awake and fully functional, would not have seen much difference between a high level of distracting US air traffic and the Israeli strike … until it was too late.
Since the massive Iranian attack on Israel one week ago, the Iranian defense forces most likely have been awake waiting for what they thought would be an enormous attack. As it did not materialize immediately, the radar operators would wear out after about four days. Israel struck on the night of Day Six … at 0400. For those who served, staying alert and awake at this hour is almost impossible.
Yet, surprisingly, it appears that the attack did not hit Natanz but just a single spot within a possible military base to the East of the city. Unusually, there was little social media video of the strike, save a single one taken from a nearby home, which shows at least three yellow fireballs of bomb explosions; the last was followed by a massive pure white flash indicative of a power relay station exploding and shorting. .
But what was really hit?