Quick Update on Israel's Attack on Iran, 4/19/2024
No Casualties-- Air Defense Site Hit
Israel's air force, possibly with drones, attacked an air base or hit nearby facilities in Isfahan, Iran.
The airbase has not been officially named, but it was likely the Hesa Air Base. This air base is associated with the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Company, the successor to the Bell Helicopter complex built for the Shah of Iran and dating back to 1974. That facility is massive and is in full operation producing Bell's 214 Helicopter and other models as well as locally produced variants.
The airbase also plays a role in protecting the nearby Natanz Uranium Enrichment facility and three Chinese-origin nuclear reactors.
There is information coming from the Jerusalem Post that says that Israel targeted an air defense site protecting the Natanz facility, shown in an aerial view below. Given the importance of uranium enrichment to Iran’s weapon’s program, this site probably was protected by a Russian-made S-300 air defense system. We don’t know if the site was destroyed.
In addition, Jennifer Dyer who is a top geostrategic analyst, reports that Israel may also have hit a high level Hezbollah meeting in Baghdad and a missile factory in the Babil, Iraq governance. She also reports that the strike in Syria may have been aimed at a missile production facility.
In addition, Israel carried out counter-terrorist operations in Lebanon and in the West Bank.
News reports say there were three explosions "near the air base" but there is no information on what was targeted.
According to reports Iran shut down its nuclear facilities and other airports, including the large international airport in the Iranian capital. Tehran. However, a few hours after the strike the shut down orders were rescinded and regular civilian air traffic restarted.
The US said it was informed there would be a strike by Israel four days earlier, but apparently the target of the attacks was not provided to the Pentagon.
Israeli aircraft could not operate in the region without coordinating in some measure with the United States. Even so, the Pentagon made it clear it had nothing to do with the attack.
In a coordinated measure, Israel also knocked out two Syrian military radar sites which some say may have been coordinating track data with the Iranians. This may not be why these radars were hit. Normally, Israel informs Russia about operations in Syrian airspace under a deconfliction agreement that is in place. Whether Russia was informed is not known in this case.
The Iranians attempted to down Israel's aircraft and drones with their air defense systems, principally the S-300. So far as is known, Iran's air defenses were ineffective.
The early Iranian reaction was to discount the attack and suggest the explosions may have been caused locally and not by Israeli aircraft. Iran let it be known it had no intention of taking any further military action against Israel.
It may be that Israel, along with trying to ward off heavy internal pressure for an answer to Iran's massive blitz on Israel, was sending a message to the Iranians on just how vulnerable Iran was to Israel's Air Force. In addition, Israel may have been testing if Iran's continued and public threats to hit Israel again were real threats or just bluster.
There are no reports of any casualties from the Israeli strike. The US said it had been informed but it offered no immediate condemnation of Israel's strike on Iran.
Next step: Israel gets bolder and starts hitting more Iranian targets. Russia delivers S400s to Syria, which would down those pesky planes, igniting Israel to retaliate even more. Lest they loose (even more) face. Finally the Arab nations get fed up with the little warmonger and decide to economically blockade them (at first). US provides relief efforts. Inevitably one of their planes/ships would get hit. Igniting a larger response. Then everything escalates and the world just goes down in flames.
Let's hope I'm wrong.
The big news is that Israel’s ability to strike at will - without consequence for Israel -in the region is gone. This is a strategic reverse for Israel, along with its inability to defeat the Palestinian resistance in Gaza -despite Israel’s targeted mass murder of Palestinian women, children ,medics and journalists. On top of that Israel’s economy - as measured by GDP - has shrunk by about 20%, the Galilee is being abandoned by the settlers , and hundreds of thousands of jewish Israelis are quietly leaving Israel.
Israel is over, and so western ‘analysts’ discussion about the superiority of Israel’s boys toys - fighter jets, tanks, missiles - misses that.
The desperate scrabble by this article’s author to big-up a small quad copter attack, and some Israeli ‘fireworks ‘in Iraq is Israeli high dosage hasbara copium .
Israel is committing national suicide preceded by self immolation. Long may that continue .