Israel’s attacks on Iran early Saturday destroyed air defense systems set up to protect several critical oil and petrochemical refineries, as well as systems guarding a large gas field and a major port in southern Iran, according to three Iranian officials and three senior Israeli defense officials.
The sites targeted by Israel, according to the officials, included defenses at the sprawling Bandar Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex, in Khuzestan province; at the major economic port Bandar Imam Khomeini, adjacent to it; and at the Abadan oil refinery. Air defense systems were also struck in Ilam province, at the refinery for the gas field, called Tange Bijar, said the officials, one of them with Iran’s oil ministry.
The Iranian and Israeli officials familiar with the attacks spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Israel’s destruction of the air defense systems has raised deep alarm in Iran, the three Iranian officials said, as critical energy and economic hubs are now vulnerable to future attacks if the cycle of retaliation between Iran and Israel continues.
“Israel is sending a clear message to us,” said Hamid Hosseini, an expert on Iran’s oil and gas industry and a member of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce. “This can have very serious economic consequences for Iran, and now that we understand the stakes we need to act wise and not continue the tensions.”
Iran’s military announced that four soldiers working with air defenses were killed in Israel’s attacks. Iranian media said the casualty numbers would probably increase.
Two of the soldiers were identified as natives of the city of Mahshahr, the closest residential town near the Bandar Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex.
Two Israeli officials said that initial plans, developed immediately after Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel in early October, included strikes on targets linked to Iran’s energy industry and nuclear project.
But while Israel was planning, the United States urged it not to strike any of Iran’s energy and oil sites or nuclear facilities, fearing that attacks on such valuable sites could draw a heightened Iranian response, destabilize the global economy and set off an all-out regional war that could draw in the United States. In its strikes Saturday, Israel eventually decided to attack the air defenses around several energy facilities but did not target the facilities themselves, the Israeli officials said.
Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, had repeatedly told the news media, and regional Arab counterparts in diplomatic meetings, that Iran’s energy infrastructure was a red line, and that if attacked Iran would respond forcefully. Araghchi sent a letter to the United Nations on Saturday urging the condemnation of Israel and calling its attack “unlawful and aggressive,” and “against the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Iran.
Iran’s armed forces issued a statement Saturday saying that Israel’s attacks had targeted radar air defense systems in Khuzestan, Ilam and Tehran, causing minor damage. The statement said repairs were underway and that Iranian air defenses had succeeded in neutralizing most of the Israeli missiles and drones.
The three Israeli officials said that command-and-control trailers, as well as the radar system, were among the targets struck Saturday. According to Israel’s assessment, the systems were severely damaged and rendered inoperative. One of the officials said that satellite imagery poststrike would show that Israel hit only the air defense battery of the Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex, avoiding the nearby industrial complex.
The Iranian military, in its statement, added that Israeli fighter jets had not entered Iran’s airspace and had fired missiles and drones from Iraq’s airspace. The military blamed the United States for allowing Iraqi airspace to be used, and Iran’s mission to the United Nations accused the United States of “complicity in this crime.”
U.S. officials have said the United States played no role in Israel’s attacks against Iran.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council held an emergency meeting Saturday, and military commanders briefed its members on the scale of damages and the targets, according to the three Iranian officials. The council discussed how Iran should respond, but no decision has been made, they said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has the authority to order strikes on Israel as the commander in chief. He is expected to make public comments about the attacks Sunday.
In addition to striking the defenses around energy sites, Iranian and Israeli officials said, Israel’s attacks have effectively taken out four S-300 air defense systems that Iran had purchased from Russia. Israel disabled one in April in an attack on a military base in Isfahan province, and three on Saturday, at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport and the Malad missile base on the capital’s outskirts.
“This looks like a potential preamble to a much more effective strike against Iran’s infrastructure and even nuclear sites,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director of International Crisis Group. “Iranians don’t have the capacity to replace these systems in a timely manner, which renders the country much more vulnerable in future tit for tats.”
In addition to the air defense systems, three major missile manufacturing bases — Falagh, Shaid Ghadiri and Abdol Fath — belonging to the Revolutionary Guard were attacked, according to the Iranian and Israeli officials. The Parchin and Parand military sites were also attacked with drones, the officials said.
Israeli officials said the attacks have set back Iran’s ability to build missiles, but Iranian officials disputed this, saying the damages were minor and the setbacks short term.
The energy facilities whose defenses were struck are critical to Iran’s ailing economy, which has struggled with U.S. sanctions, inflation and other problems for years. Khuzestan province, in southern Iran, is home to most of the country’s oil and gas fields. The Bandar Imam petrochemical complex is Iran’s largest such compound, generating millions of tons of petroleum-based products annually for export. The Abadan refinery is Iran’s largest oil refinery near the Persian Gulf, with a capacity of 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Israel’s targeting of air defense systems around the energy sites was similar to its attack in April, when it struck the radar system of an S-300 air defense system near Natanz, a city in central Iran that is critical to the country’s nuclear program. The April strike came in response to Iran launching several hundred missiles and drones at Israel, a barrage that was itself a response to an Israeli airstrike on Iran’s Embassy compound in Damascus, Syria.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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