Iran has “no limits” in defending its territorial integrity, according to its foreign minister, as the country’s state media reported on Saturday that pre-dawn Israeli air strikes targeting military bases killed at least four military personnel and damaged radar systems.
“I think we’ve shown that our determination to defend ourselves knows no limits,” Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with the official website of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Iran was “entitled and obligated to defend itself against external aggressive acts” after the attacks on its soil raising concerns about further regional escalation.
The Israeli army struck military sites in Iran after 2am on Saturday (22:30 GMT on Friday) in response to what it said were months of attacks by “Iran and its proxies” in the region.
Hours later the Israeli military said it had “completed” the strikes and “achieved its objectives”. It warned Tehran against any retaliation.
Iran’s air defence headquarters, in a statement, confirmed that bases in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran were hit but the attacks were “successfully countered”.
In a statement read out on state television, the country’s military said that only radar systems were damaged in the predawn strikes. “Thanks to the timely performance of the country’s air defences, the attacks caused limited damage and a few radar systems were damaged,” the armed forces general staff said. The Iranian army earlier said two soldiers were killed in the attacks.
There was no immediate indication that oil or missile sites were hit.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said that while Israel targeted multiple locations across Iran, including the north, east and south, the main focus of the strikes was the Iranian capital.
The attacks primarily aimed at Iran’s air defence systems, missile bases and drone facilities,” he added.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) said flights had returned to normal across the country.Neither Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran nor other airports were attacked.
Earlier, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a prerecorded video statement, “The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7 … including direct attacks from Iranian soil.”
He said Israel “has the right and the duty to respond”.
Israel’s response was long expected after Iran launched a missile barrage earlier in October, in which about 200 missiles were fired at Israel and one person was killed in the occupied West Bank.
Iran said that attack was in retaliation for assaults in recent months that killed leaders of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Palestinian group Hamas and the Iranian military.