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‘Israel to face tooth-breaking response’
AGENCIES
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said yesterday that the United States and Israel will “undoubtedly receive a crushing response” for what they do against his country, state media reported.
“Enemies, including America and the Zionist regime, should know that they will undoubtedly receive a crushing response for what they do against Iran and the resistance front,” Khamenei said.
He made the comments to students ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by hardline students shortly after the Islamic revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah.
Yesterday a pro-Iran coalition in Iraq claimed a drone strike on Israel’s resort of Eilat. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is among pro-Iran groups drawn into more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Days before the presidential election in Israel’s main military supplier, the United States, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Iran’s response would cover attacks on both the Islamic republic and its allies.
Israel’s military said it intercepted three drones over the Red Sea, after late Friday reporting seven drones launched from “several fronts”. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for four drone strikes on Eilat.
Since late September Israel has been engaged in full-scale war against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon while fighting continues against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7 last year.
Yesterday, Israel again carried out deadly air strikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions “apocalyptic”, and Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
“The enemies, both the USA and the Zionist regime, should know that they will definitely receive a tooth-breaking response,” Khamenei said, referring to Iran-aligned groups including those in Yemen and Syria.
On October 26, Israel bombed military sites in Iran, killing four servicemen, in response to an October 1 barrage of about 200 missiles that Tehran called a reprisal. Israel has warned Iran against responding to the October 26 attack.
B-52 BOMBERS
Analysts say Israel inflicted severe damage on Iranian air defences and missile capacities and could yet launch more wide-scale action against the Islamic republic.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, are transforming themselves into a “powerful military organisation” due to “unprecedented” military support from outside sources, particularly Iran and Hezbollah, said a newly published UN report.
Ahead of the US election on Tuesday, officials in the United States have been pushing for a resolution of the Lebanon war.
On Friday the Pentagon announced deployment of ballistic missile defence destroyers, long-range B-52 bombers and other resources to the Middle East, serving as a warning to Iran.
The capabilities would begin arriving “in coming months”, a Pentagon spokesman said.
US naval forces and heavy B-2 bombers have struck Huthi rebel targets in Yemen in response to the attacks by the rebels, who say they act in support of Palestinians.
Since October 6 Israeli forces have carried out a major air and ground assault on north Gaza, centred on the Jabalia area, vowing to stop attempts by Hamas from regrouping.