Northern Israel sirens a ‘false alarm’: Military
The Israeli military has said the warning sirens that sounded early on Friday in northern Israel were actually a false alarm.
They began shortly after unconfirmed reports of Israeli strikes in Iran.
Iranian state television says three drones brought down over Isfahan
Iranian state television has been reporting more details on the situation around Isfahan. It says that at “around 12:30am GMT”, three drones were seen in the sky over Isfahan, air defence systems were activated and they “destroyed these drones in the sky”.
The city is considered a strategically important city and is the location of several important facilities, including military research and development sites, as well as bases. The nearby city of Natanz is home to one of Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites.
Iranian state media downplaying incident
Iranian media is certainly downplaying this incident. According to state TV, three small unknown flying objects were interecepted near the the city of Isfahan just after 4am local time.
The Iranian air defence systems were able to intercept and destroy these flying object, state TV said. The location in Isfahan province is an Iranian military airbase that belongs to the country’s army, and not the Revolutionary Guards. I think it’s important to highlight that.
This base houses multiple squadrons of F-14 Tomcat fighter aircrafts. This facility is also located near the Isfahan airport and as a result of all this the officials have now cleared the Iranian skies. Flights have been cancelled.
We also understand that the air defence systems over the city of Tabriz in the northwestern part of Iran was also activated.
Reports indicate how ‘fragile and tense’ situation is between Iran and Israel
Tensions are at an all-time high.
Things came to a head when Israel struck the consular building in Damascus and killed seven members of the country’s revolutionary guard. The Iranians responded on April 13 with an unprecedented – what many here call ‘historic’ – attack on Israel. They said the response was proportionate because no injuries were reported. Iranians said this was to create a new reality in the Middle East, and that this kind of “tit for tat” behaviour by Israel would no longer be tolerated.
Israel, of course, said they would respond and whether that is what we are seeing unfold today is that response is too early to say. It highlights just how fragile and tense the situation is.
