Indications Israel is planning more attacks in the coming dayspublished at 10:15 British Summer Time 13 June

10:15 BST 13 June

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Israel says Operation Rising Lion has only just begun.

The attacks so far have not just targeted elements of Iran’s nuclear programme but also its air defences.

This suggests that Israel is preparing the ground for further attacks in the coming days.

Israel says the operation involved 200 jets, but some reports already point to a clandestine element similar to Ukraine’s recent drone attack on Russian airbases.

Security sources are reported as saying that Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, smuggled explosive drones into Iran "well before the Israeli strike".

The drones are believed to have been used to attack surface-to-surface missile launchers that might pose a threat to Israel in the event of a large-scale Iranian retaliation.

But the drones that Iran has launched so far today seem mostly symbolic - a far cry from the Tehran’s major ballistic missile attack on Israel last October.

Israel’s retaliation, later that month, is believed to have targeted Iran's air defences, missile and drone production, almost certainly rendering Iran more vulnerable to future attacks and reducing its ability to strike back.

For all its defiant rhetoric, Iran’s ability to mount a direct military response is not what it was.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) says it has destroyed "dozens" of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers as part of the attacks on Iran's air defence systems in the west of the country.

Calling it a "large-scale strike", the IAF says this forms part of ongoing operations to damage Iran's air defence systems and those of its proxies.

As a reminder, Israel said the focus of this overnight operation had been military and nuclear targets. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Israel "should anticipate a severe punishment" in response.

Israel takes a gamblepublished at 09:48 British Summer Time 13 June

09:48 BST 13 June

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Israel has taken a huge gamble with what it is calling Operation Rising Lion. Its argument runs that it had no choice, that Iran was already accelerating its work towards building a nuclear bomb and that this was its best and possibly last chance to prevent that from happening.

But the counter-argument is more pertinent today than ever before. And that is that when the dust settles from this latest Iran-Israel exchange of fire enough of Iran’s leadership will survive to now race for the bomb.

Hawks in Iran’s security establishment have long argued that not only is it Iran’s national right to have this weapon but that this would be the best deterrent against future attack.

They will have taken careful note of the different paths taken by Libya and North Korea. Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi gave up his Weapons of Mass Destruction programme in 2003 and eight years later he was dead in a ditch, overthrown by the Arab Spring protests, backed by Western air power.

By contrast, Kim Jong-Un’s regime in North Korea has defied Western sanctions and managed to build up a formidable arsenal of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Nobody is in a hurry to attack North Korea.

Bethany Bell
Reporting from the IAEA in Vienna

Image source, EPA

The head of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, has called the Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities “deeply concerning”.

In a statement to board members Rafael Grossi says: “I have repeatedly stated that nuclear facilities must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances, as it could harm both people and the environment.

“Such attacks have serious implications for nuclear safety, security and safeguards, as well as regional and international peace and security."

He called "on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation”, saying “any military action that jeopardises the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region, and beyond”.

“Despite the current military actions and heightened tensions, it is clear that the only sustainable path forward - for Iran, for Israel, the entire region, and the international community - is one grounded in dialogue and diplomacy to ensure peace, stability, and co-operation,” Grossi adds.

He said he was in close contact with IAEA inspectors in Iran, after Israel said it targeted the "heart" of Iran's nuclear programme.

On Thursday, the watchdog formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years. Read more on that story here.

Iran confirms at least six nuclear scientists killedpublished at 09:37 British Summer Time 13 June

09:37 BST 13 June

By Shayan Sardarizadeh and Ghoncheh Habibiazad

Iran has so far confirmed that at least six of its nuclear scientists were killed in Israeli attacks overnight.

The most prominent of those is Fereydoon Abbasi, a former head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.

Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, the second one identified, served as the president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.

Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, and Amirhossein Feqhi were academics at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University.

The sixth victim has only been identified by their surname, Motallebizadeh.

Israel, Iran, Jordan and Iraq have all announced the closure of their airspace and grounded all flights following last night's attacks.

Data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows that there are currently no flights over the three countries.

This morning, Air France has said it’s suspending flights to and from Tel Aviv “until further notice.”

Image source, Flightradar24

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Israeli media are now reporting that Iranian drones headed towards the country have been successfully intercepted.

Home Front Command - which issues shelter warnings - says people no longer need to stay close to a shelter but should still remain aware and alert.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

The timing of this move is quite surprising. A meeting was expected to happen on Sunday between American and Iranian officials to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis involving Iran's nuclear programme.

This morning we have seen reports from Iran suggesting it will not take part in those talks.

And we've had an update from the Israeli military saying the Iranian retaliation has begun, with more than 100 drones fired into Israel.

The concern is that this could be part of a larger response by Iran. The drones could be followed by missiles. And the idea could be to overwhelm Israel's air defence systems.

Israeli authorities have been saying for some time that they saw a window of opportunity to attack.

Iran's air defence systems had been severely damaged last year in Israeli air strikes and Iranian proxies in the region, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon, had been degraded. They had been talking about military action for some time.

And this is a massive attack to happen - we're talking about nuclear facilities, military sites, air defence systems, top military officials and also scientists.

Fires and smoke seen in videos filmed near two Iranian military sitespublished at 08:51 British Summer Time 13 June

08:51 BST 13 June

By Shayan Sardarizadeh, Paul Brown and Ghoncheh Habibiazad

BBC Verify has authenticated footage of Israeli strikes on two military sites in Iran.

Several videos from different angles show fire and smoke rising from a location in Piranshahr, north-western Iran, where an Iranian ballistic missile site is thought to be located.

A dramatic video, filmed at dusk, shows multiple blasts, a huge fireball and a plume of thick smoke rising from the location.

Several other videos from other angles filmed later in the day show fires continuing to burn and heavy smoke rising from the exact same site.

The second location where we've verified a strike is thought to be a base belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the western province of Kermanshah.

Footage filmed from a moving car in an industrial area of Kermanshah province shows at least three columns of smoke rising from a mountainous area next to a main highway.

Two more images from the same base show smoke in two locations while cars drive past along the motorway.

The area is believed to house underground missile bases.

BBC Verify is continuing to check more footage from other military and nuclear sites allegedly targeted by Israel overnight.

What could be behind the timing of Israel’s strikes?published at 08:24 British Summer Time 13 June

08:24 BST 13 June

Raffi Berg
Digital Middle East editor

Image source, Reuters

Speculation about an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites has swirled around for years, but it intensified significantly in the past few days. On Thursday, US media reported such an attack was imminent, but it still came sooner than many expected.

The US was due to hold a sixth round of talks with Iran on Sunday aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and capacity, and only on Thursday President Trump said he didn't want Israel to attack while talks were ongoing.

Israel has long claimed that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons - seeing it as an existential threat - and will not accept Iran having a nuclear programme of any form. Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has made it a constant theme, from as far back as the mid-1990s.

Iran has continuously denied seeking nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful, civilian purposes only.

On Thursday, the global nuclear body the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution - for the first time in 20 years - declaring Iran in breach of its nuclear obligations.

It also recently assessed that Tehran had enough enriched uranium for about nine nuclear weapons if further refined.

Speaking as the attacks got under way, Netanyahu similarly said Iran had produced enough material for - theoretically - nine nuclear bombs.

Israel may be trying to take advantage of a window: Iran has reportedly not yet rebuilt air defences which were degraded by an Israeli attack in October, and Iran’s strongest proxy in the region, Hezbollah in Lebanon, has been significantly weakened by Israeli action.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Israel "should anticipate a severe punishment" following overnight strikes which targeted nuclear sites and killed several military commanders.

He says Israel has "committed a crime in our dear country today" and his military forces "won’t let them go unpunished".

"With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see."

Iran has since launched about 100 drones towards Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist, says Israel's claims that Iran has been accelerating its weapons-related work "deserves very careful scrutiny".

Joshi tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that to many Iranians waking up today, Israel's overnight strikes will look like an effort to destabilise the regime, rather than a scalpel-like strike of nuclear sites.

He adds that he expects weeks of serious disruption.

"We're at the early stage both of the Israeli campaign, which will be multiple days to inflict serious damage on Iranian sites, but also the Iranian retaliation that is inevitable."

Israel inflicts unprecedented degree of damage on Iran's elitepublished at 07:41 British Summer Time 13 June

07:41 BST 13 June

Sebastian Usher
Middle East analyst, reporting from Jerusalem

Not only has Israel's attack on Iran been more wide-ranging and intense than its two previous military operations last year, but it also appears to have adopted some of the strategy that was used in the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon last November.

That is not only to hit Iran's missile bases - and thus its ability to respond with force - but also to launch strikes to take out key members of Iran's leadership.

That strategy of decapitation of Hezbollah senior figures had devastating consequences for the group and its ability to mount a sustainable counter-offensive.

Footage from Tehran has shown what seem to be specific buildings hit, similar to images from Israel's attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which culminated in the killing of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

No figure of that magnitude appears to have been killed in Iran. The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not been targeted.

But to kill Iran's military chief of staff, the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards and several of the country's top nuclear scientists in the first hours of an operation - that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested might go on for days - is to have inflicted an unprecedented degree of damage on Iran's elite.

That would seem to necessitate a fiercer response from Iran than we saw in its two attacks on Israel last year. But it may also make Tehran's ability to summon up such a response that much harder.

That presumably is the calculation that Netanyahu made in ordering this escalation in the conflict.

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Here in Jerusalem, supermarket shelves are fast depleting with people stocking up on food and water.

Most of the country was woken up at around 03:00 (01:00 BST) this morning with a short burst of sirens and a phone alert warning of a “significant threat” - with people instructed to stay close to a shelter.

Israel’s emergency services say they are mobilising blood services across the country, while some hospitals say they are discharging patients who are well enough to go home.

In the West Bank, a lockdown has been imposed on all Palestinian cities until further notice.

This is all in preparation for a retaliation - with the Israeli military warning 100 Iranian drones are on their way to Israel.

Image source, Reuters

We've now heard more from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who said earlier it was monitoring the situation closely after Israel targeted Iran's nuclear sites overnight.

The agency says it has been informed by Iranian authorities that the Bushehr nuclear plant has not been targeted and that no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz site.

Natanz is the site of Iran's main uranium enrichment facility - Iranian state TV said it was struck several times, with the IAEA confirming earlier it had been among the targets.

The facility is located about 225km south of Tehran - for more on Iran's nuclear programme read our earlier post here.

We can now bring you some pictures from Iran this morning after Israel's strikes overnight:

Image source, EPA

Image source, Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Iran and Israel to "step back and reduce tensions urgently", calling the strikes "concerning".

"Escalation serves no-one in the region," he says.

"Stability in the Middle East must be the priority and we are engaging partners to de-escalate. Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy."

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy echoes Starmer's call for restraint, saying further escalation "is a serious threat to peace and stability in the region".

“Stability in the Middle East is vital for global security. This is a dangerous moment and I urge all parties to show restraint.”

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Brig Gen Effie Defrin says Iran launched "approximately 100 UAVs towards Israeli territory", which he says they are working to intercept

Defrin adds that the chief of staff of the Iranian army, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), and the commander of Iran's emergency command were killed in last night's strikes.

Iranian state media also reported earlier that Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guard chief, has been killed.

As a reminder, a state of emergency has been declared in Israel.

If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

• Israel has launched strikes across Iran, saying they targeted the "heart" of Iran's nuclear programme
• The strikes have killed Hossein Salami, chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards - a powerful branch of the country's armed forces - as well as nuclear scientists, according to Iranian state media
• Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu said that the strikes were a "targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival", claiming that "if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time"

• A state of emergency has been declared in Israel, with counter-attacks expected "in the immediate future"
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US was not involved in the strikes and did not provide any assistance
• A spokesperson for Iran's armed forces has said that both the US and Israel will pay a "heavy price" for the strikes

Iran hasn't seen military operations of this scale on its soil since Iran-Iraq Warpublished at 05:55 British Summer Time 13 June

05:55 BST 13 June

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Middle East correspondent, BBC World Service, in Beirut

The flight information board at Qatar Airport shows that flights not only to Iran but also to its neighbouring country Iraq are being cancelled, one after another.

Iran has officially closed its airspace following an unprecedented series of Israeli attacks.

However, it appears that many airlines are also avoiding Iraq due to heightened security concerns.

Iranian and Iraqi paramilitary groups allied with Tehran have repeatedly warned that any attack on Iran - whether by Israel or the United States - would make American interests and bases in the region, particularly in Iraq, “legitimate” targets.

Just yesterday evening I spoke with an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who told me the government has been engaged in intensive talks with Iran-backed groups to dissuade them from retaliating if Iran is attacked, as Baghdad tries to avoid entering a new conflict.

Another foreign policy adviser to Sudani warned me earlier that if anything were to happen to Iran, “It won’t be like something that we had seen before.”

He was right. Although we’ve seen tit-for-tat exchanges between Iran and Israel in the past, Iran has not experienced military operations of this scale on its own soil since the Iran-Iraq War.

This latest attack comes just two days before the sixth round of Iran-US talks, which had been scheduled for this Sunday in Muscat - and to which I am currently en route. But now, uncertainty looms large.

It’s unclear whether the talks will proceed at all. And it’s harder than ever to predict what lies ahead for the region.