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Israel strikes back. Iranian military bases in the capital Tehran and other cities were struck by missiles earlier today. The attack is a 'response' to Iran's air strikes on October 1 when over 200 rockets and ballistic missiles rained down on Israel to avenge the killing of ally Hezbollah's chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
The early morning strikes "caused limited damage", says Iran but Israel claims that it now has "wider freedom" to open in skies over Iran. The aftermath of the strikes resulted in a complete lockdown of the airspace in Iran, Syria and Iraq.
As per FlightRadar24, an open-source flight tracking website, no aircraft is flying over the three countries. However, Iran has now announced that it will resume flights after the attacks.
Syria said Israel launched air strikes from the occupied Golan Heights and Lebanon on the capital Damascus, prompting them to activate air defence systems. Syria is part of the Iran-led 'Axis of Resistance', a group of Shia militias and political groups, against Israel and the US in the region.
Iraq said it is preserving the safety of civil aviation in its airspace and decided to lockdown the skies after the attacks. Prohibiting airspace after attacks is part of standard operation procedures of states for security reasons to prevent intrusion of enemy aircraft in the territory and make it easy for air defence systems to identify friendly aircraft in the airspace.
For Updates: Air Strikes On Iran Military Targets Completed, Says Israel
'Will Face Proportional Reaction'
The tensions never simmered in the region and now Iran says it is ready to respond to the 'act of aggression'.
Iran is prepared to respond to any Israeli "aggression," Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing sources. "There is no doubt that Israel will face a proportional reaction for any action it takes," Tasnim quotes the sources as saying.
The Israeli army has warned Iran that it will "pay a heavy price" if it begins a new round of escalation. Iran said the attack caused "limited damage".
The United States confirmed it was informed of the impending strike, although no US personnel or assets were involved in the operation. Sean Savett, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, termed Israel's actions as "an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel."
"We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation," said US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett.
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