Smokes after Israeli airstrikes in Tehran on Tuesday. In Iran, Israel is carrying out the kind of broad and brazen attack that it long threatened but never dared to enact before.
Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional ally, has signaled privately that it does not intend to attack Israel, but Lebanon’s military has bolstered its presence in the country’s south to prevent rocket fire.
Iran is often portrayed as one of the world’s most dangerous actors, but with its attacks on Iranian defenses, nuclear sites and proxy militias, Israel has exposed a compromised and weakened adversary.
Waves of Israeli airstrikes hit two nuclear enrichment sites, multiple military bases, and military scientists and commanders. Iran replied with a barrage of missiles and drones.
Years of intelligence collection, infiltration of Iran with commandos and weapons, and tracking of targeted commanders and scientists made the wide-ranging attacks possible.
Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the network of militias it has fostered in the Middle East to help it fight Israel, has become seriously degraded, experts say.
Hezbollah supporters paid tribute to the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at his funeral in Beirut in February, months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Hezbollah is battered after its 14-month war with Israel in Lebanon.
The airstrikes on the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, an area where Hezbollah holds sway, were some of the heaviest since a U.S.-brokered cease-fire came into effect in November.
Connexion
