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It’s on. Almost a month after Iran attacked Israel with an estimated 200 ballistic missiles, the Israelis have begun their promised retaliatory strikes. Unlike the Iranian attack, the Israelis have apparently hit and destroyed several strategic targets, and the attack continues to unfold:
In a statement, the IDF says it is carrying out “precise strikes” on Iranian military targets, in response to “months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel.”
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the military says.
“Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond,” the statement continues.
«Precise strikes» has both a military and political meaning. Iran’s ballistic missile attack didn’t have much precision; the Iranians basically lobbed them at Israel in general and hoped to do damage wherever the missiles hit. The only fatality turned out to be a Palestinian in the West Bank, thanks in large part to the Israeli missile defenses and the combined US-Israeli forces.
Militarily, that is a message to the US. The Israelis want everyone to know that they are not conducting the same kind of indiscriminate missile attacks used by Iran, or for that matter, Hamas or Hezbollah. No doubt the Biden administration demanded both precision and careful choice of targets as part of its agreement to back Israel’s action.
Both points are getting made in real time. The IDF seems to have easily penetrated Iran’s air defenses and are hitting specific targets in the Iranian capital.
