US and Israel Launch Joint Attack on Iran as Explosions Rock Israel and Gulf Arab States

The United States and Israel have launched an attack on Iran, with explosions heard and seen across Tehran and in other parts of the country, as apparent retaliatory explosions are hitting northern Israel and multiple Gulf Arab states.

Several missiles struck University Street and the Jomhouri area in Tehran, the Fars news agency reported. Smoke was seen rising in the city, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported that explosions also occurred in Tehran’s northern Seyyed Khandan area. Other Iranian media reported attacks nationwide, including in the western Ilam province, while Israel’s military confirmed carrying out attacks in western Iran.

An Israeli strike hit an elementary girl’s school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran, killing at least 40 people, according to according to the state-run IRNA news agency..

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks targeted a range of military and defence sites, as well as civilian infrastructure, in various cities.

US President Donald Trump said the joint attacks were aimed at “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.

“Short time ago, US military began major combat operation in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” he said.

An Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran ⁠is preparing ⁠for a retaliation that is set ⁠to be ⁠”crushing”. Iran is preparing to “take revenge” on Israel and deliver a “strong response”, State TV reported.

A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that “all American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target” and that “there are no red lines after this aggression”.

Explosions in Israel, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait

Explosions rocked northern Israel as the country worked to intercept incoming Iranian missiles shortly after it attacked Iran. The blasts echoed just after the Israeli military said it would be using its air defence systems to bring down the Iranian fire. There was no immediate word on any casualties or damage from the ongoing attack.

Blasts also occurred across numerous Gulf Arab states that host US military assets, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Iran’s Fars News Agency confirmed the country had carried out attacks targeting military bases in each of the states, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

Qatar’s Defence Ministry said it had “successfully thwarted a number of attacks targeting the country’s territory”, after several rounds of alerts sounded.

The UAE’s state news agency reported one person was killed in Abu Dhabi after Iranian missiles were intercepted.

Muhanad Seloom, assistant professor in Critical Security Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that Iran wants to “raise the cost” for countries in the region that are close to the US.

“They are trying to draw other countries in the region into this war,” said Seloom. “They want to raise the cost for these countries, with the hope probably that these countries will pressure the US administration to stop this war.”

‘Joint US-Israeli action’

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran aimed to remove an “existential threat”. Netanyahu projected that “joint action” by Israel and the US “will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands” and praised Trump for his “historic leadership”.

A US official told Al Jazeera earlier that the attacks were carried out as a joint military operation between Israel and the US, which has assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear programme. A US official told Reuters that attacks were being carried out by air and sea.

One of the areas targeted in Iran’s capital was near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported The Associated Press. Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a secure location, according to an official quoted by Reuters.

Sirens in Israel

As sirens sounded and a state of emergency was declared in Israel, the Israeli military said it had issued a “proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the state of Israel”.

The Israel Airports Authority announced its airspace had been closed to all civilian flights and urged the public not to come to the airport.

According to an Israeli defence official quoted by Reuters, the attacks had been planned for months and the ⁠launch date ⁠decided ⁠weeks ago, even as the US and Iran carried out negotiations.

Mehran Kamrava, director of the Iranian studies unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Israel “appears to have launched an attack designed to derail the negotiations”.