Israel Attacks Iran: Tehran Activates Air Defense System, Halts Flights

Israel Attacks Iran: Israel launched a strike on Iranian soil on Friday, news agency Reuters reported. The explosion was heard near the airport in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Iran's Fars news agency reported that the explosions were heard at an airport in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Tehran has denied reports of missile attack by Israel in its soil. "Explosions heard in Isfahan were a result of the activation of Iran's air defence systems," Reuters quoted an Iranian official as saying on Friday.

Meanwhile, flights over the Iranian cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tehran have been halted, as reported by state media. Isfahan province, which houses several Iranian nuclear facilities including Natanz, the focal point of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, is among the affected areas. According to a notice posted on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration database, Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport was shut down to all flights until 0700 GMT.

On Friday (April 19), some flights from Emirates and Flydubai that were traversing Iranian airspace abruptly altered their course, as evidenced by flight paths displayed on the tracking website Flightradar24. Over the weekend, Iran conducted a retaliatory strike and launched hundreds of drones and missiles in a retaliatory strike after a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria. Therefore, most of the drones and missiles were intercepted before reaching Israeli territory.

Iran told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Israel must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests. The U.N. secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a "moment of maximum peril."