Iran’s powerful paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for a new wave of missile strikes against Israel, saying the attacks targeted the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and key military facilities as the conflict triggered by the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader continues to intensify.
In a statement carried by Iran’s Fars news agency, the Guards said the strikes were aimed at the “office of the criminal prime minister of the Zionist regime” in Tel Aviv as well as the headquarters of Israel’s air force commander. According to the IRGC, the operation also involved strikes on security and military sites in the northern port city of Haifa and targets in east Jerusalem.
The Iranian force said it used the domestically developed Kheibar ballistic missile in the attack. The missile, unveiled by Iran in 2023, is believed to have a range of roughly 2,000 kilometres and the capacity to carry a warhead weighing up to 1,500 kilograms, making it capable of striking deep inside Israel from Iranian territory.
The announcement came as explosions echoed across Jerusalem on Monday. Journalists on the ground reported multiple blasts in the sky after Israel’s military confirmed that fresh missiles had been launched from Iran toward Israeli territory.
“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that air defence systems had been activated to intercept the incoming projectiles.
The latest barrage is part of Iran’s escalating retaliation after the United States and Israel carried out a coordinated air campaign over the weekend that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. The strike marked one of the most dramatic decapitation operations in modern Middle Eastern conflict and has rapidly expanded into a wider regional war.
The fallout from the conflict is already spreading across the Gulf and beyond. Iranian attacks have struck multiple locations linked to US and allied forces, including a British air base in Cyprus and a Saudi oil facility. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned what she described as “reckless and indiscriminate attacks by Iran and its proxies against sovereign territories across the region,” while urging urgent diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict from spiralling further.
Casualties continue to mount. Iran’s Red Crescent Society says at least 555 people have been killed in Iran since the US–Israeli air campaign began. Meanwhile, missile strikes and drone attacks linked to Iran have rocked cities across the Middle East, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Manama, signalling a dangerous widening of the confrontation.
In Kuwait, black smoke was seen rising near the US embassy compound after an incident amid the ongoing exchanges of fire. The embassy issued an urgent security advisory warning of continuing threats from missile and drone attacks and instructing the public to stay away from the compound while personnel shelter in place.
Authorities in the Gulf say the Iranian retaliatory strikes have so far killed at least five people across the region, including one fatality in Kuwait.
With missiles flying across multiple countries, attacks targeting US bases and allied infrastructure, and fresh explosions reported in Israel, the conflict triggered by Khamenei’s killing now risks evolving into the most dangerous regional war in the Middle East in decades
