US President Donald Trump
The United States quietly delivered hundreds of advanced laser-guided missiles to the Israeli regime, knowing that the projectiles would be used by it towards attacking Iran.
The Middle East Eye (MEE) news and analysis website carried the report on Saturday, identifying its sources as US officials, and naming the projectiles in question as air-to-surface Hellfire missiles.
“There is a time and place for Hellfires. They were useful to Israel [as it was seeking to strike the Islamic Republic],” a senior American military official told the website.
The US also provided the regime with the missiles, knowing that their features specifically armed Tel Aviv for surgical strikes, it added.
Also on Friday, the US president, himself, confirmed in remarks to Reuters that he and his team knew the attacks were coming. "We knew everything,” Donald Trump said.
Observers, meanwhile, note that reports of Washington’s unstinting arms support -- aimed at further equipping the regime to better target the Islamic Republic -- have emerged, despite the United States being engaged in indirect talks with Iran, ostensibly to give diplomacy a chance.
The MEE further reported that the Trump administration had prior knowledge of the plan for “months.”
The Israeli aggression, targeting various cities across Iran, including the capital, Tehran, included a series of precision attacks aimed at assassinations, which led to the martyrdom of Major General Hossein Salami, the former commander-in-chief of the IRGC.
Among the other victims were Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC’s aerospace division, and Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid, commander of the country’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
The attacks also claimed the lives of veteran nuclear scientists Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi, Fereydoun Abbasi, and Dr. Abdol-Hamid Minoucher, along with more than 70 civilians, including children and women.
The Islamic Republic has responded by firing dozens of missiles and drones towards sensitive and strategic targets across the occupied Palestinian territories.
The retaliation began on Friday and lasted into Saturday, when a new wave of Iranian missiles began targeting the regime.
Iran has, meanwhile, hailed the reprisal as a “major blow” to the regime, and vowed that it is well capable of repeating the operation.
Providing the pledge in a televised interview on Saturday, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, a senior advisor to the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said the reprisal, codenamed Operation True Promise III, had witnessed the Corps’ successfully strike at least 150 Israeli targets, including critically strategic bases.
