Israel launches attack on Iran's Isfahan town

Tel Aviv: Iran halted flights and activated its air defence system in response to an attack by Israel on the town of Isfahan.

Just a few days prior, Iran had launched an attack on Israel in retaliation for an alleged attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, which resulted in the deaths of seven senior members of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, among them General Mohammed Reza Zahedi.

Iranian air defences were activated in the skies over the area, according to Iranian semi-official Fars News Agency.

Three explosions rocked the east of Isfahan and near the Isfahan International Airport.

An announcement to airmen published on a US Federal Aviation Administration website stated that all flights were cancelled out of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport.

A few flights operated by Emirates and Flydubai that were passing over Iran early on Friday abruptly veered outside the airspace, as indicated by flight paths displayed on the tracking website Flightradar24.

Israeli media reported that a missile strike targeted Isfahan town. It said that several senior officials were present in the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Friday morning.

Isfahan province is home to several Iranian nuclear plants, including Natanz, the hub of Iran's uranium enrichment programme. Iran's Tasnim news agency stated that nuclear facilities in Isfahan were "completely secure", NDTV reported.

However, Iran said that there were no missile attacks but only drone attacks.

Iranian state media on Friday reported that several small flying objects had been shot at in the skies over the central province of Isfahan.

Several drones "have been successfully shot down by the country's air defence, there are no reports of a missile attack for now," Iran's space agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian said on X.

The Iranian media reported that flights to Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz had been suspended as of Friday morning.

With inputs from IANS