US and Israeli officials told Fox News that last week’s Israeli strike on Iran destroyed most of the Islamic Republic’s air defenses, effectively leaving Iran defenseless.
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According to US officials, Iran is now essentially without any air defenses after last week’s Israeli attack.
Israel launched airstrikes on several locations in Iran last week in response to an Iranian missile attack earlier this month. Although Israel did not attack nuclear and oil facilities, it did attack missile sites, missile and drone production facilities, and air defense systems.
Although there were earlier reports that Israel had destroyed Iran’s Russian-made air defense system, the extent is still unknown.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Israeli strikes destroyed the remaining three S-300 batteries in Iran. A fourth battery was destroyed in a previous exchange of airstrikes in April.
Now, Fox News reports that in an internal call, Amos Hochstein, the US president’s Middle East envoy, said that “Iran is basically naked right now with no air defense”.
According to the WSJ, last week, in response to an Iranian attack that included 180 ballistic missiles, nearly 100 Israeli warplanes hit 23 locations in Iran.
‘Most of Iran’s air defenses destroyed’
“Much of Iran’s air defenses have been taken out,” a senior Israeli official told Fox.
According to Jennifer Griffin, Fox’s chief national security correspondent, in addition to all of Iran’s S-300 batteries, Israel has removed ballistic missile sites used to attack Israel, including three last week and one in April. Also destroyed several radar systems. .
A senior official told Fox that eliminating the missile sites was not enough and that the radar system also had to be removed because it was a joint removal that “affects Iran’s ability to fire more ballistic missiles in the near future”.
In his analysis of the attack’s aftermath, Griffin said Israeli attacks on air defenses and radar systems “really deterred a potential Iranian response”.
Griffin, citing well-placed US defense sources, reported that the bomb damage assessment of the Israeli airstrikes was “much more successful than Israel expected”.
Griffin noted that S-300 missile defense systems are located near Iran’s nuclear sites.
This sends a message to Iran that although Israel has abandoned the nuclear facilities this time, the sites are within their reach.
Griffin added that the attacks on these air defense and radar systems came after discussions with the White House and the Pentagon. It reported that the targets were chosen to “send an important message to Iran and reduce Iran’s ability to fire ballistic missiles at Israel anytime soon”.