MONITORING (SW) – An American researcher has said the Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a building that was part of Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons development program, and he and another researcher said facilities used to mix solid fuel for missiles also were struck.
The UN weapons inspector, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank told Reuters that Israel struck buildings in Parchin, a massive military complex near Tehran. Israel also hit Khojir, according to Eveleth, a sprawling missile production site near Tehran.
Reuters reported in July that Khojir was undergoing massive expansion. Eveleth said the Israeli strikes may have “significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles.”
Israeli strikes on Iran, in retaliation for Iran’s missile attacks earlier this month, have killed four Iranian soldiers, Iran’s army said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it targeted missile factories and other sites near Tehran and western Iran early on Saturday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it has a responsibility to defend itself but added that Iran “recognizes its responsibilities towards regional peace and security,” a statement viewed as relatively conciliatory.
Israeli retaliation for an Iranian barrage of almost 200 ballistic missiles fired towards Israel on 1 October had been widely expected for weeks.
Tehran had said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil in July. Many missiles were shot down by Israel and its allies, but a small number struck central and southern Israel.
Iranian authorities said sites in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam provinces were attacked. The military claimed that the attacks had been successfully countered, although there was “limited damage” in some locations.
Iran has the Middle East’s largest missile arsenal and supplied missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and to Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, according to U.S. officials.
Tehran and Moscow deny that Russia has received Iranian missiles.
