Iran launches missile attacks as Israel strikes nuclear sites
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Live updates: Israel-Iran conflict, ballistic missile attacks, Trump weighs US involvement
Iran says it targeted a nearby technology park it claims was used by the Israeli military. Israel also attacked Iran’s “inactive” Arak nuclear facility, with no major damage reported. President Donald Trump will allow two weeks for diplomacy to proceed before deciding whether to launch a US strike in Iran.
• US weighs options: President Donald Trump will allow two weeks for diplomacy to proceed before deciding whether to launch a US strike in Iran, according to the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the US for “helping a lot” in the conflict.
• Israel threatens Iran’s top leader: Israel’s defense minister said Iran’s supreme leader cannot be allowed to “continue to exist.” He has instructed the Israeli military to “intensify strikes” against Iranian targets.
• On the ground: CNN’s Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran, where the streets are nearly empty amid the sounds of sporadic thuds and outgoing anti-aircraft fire.
Israel-Iran War Live Updates: Trump to Decide on Attack in Next 2 Weeks, White House Says
Pentagon officials are considering all of the ways Iran could retaliate, as President Trump cryptically hints at what he might do. Israel has targeted Iranian military sites and state-sponsored entities, as well as high-ranking generals. But Israel has steered clear of Iranian naval assets. So while Iran’s ability to respond has been severely damaged, it has a robust navy and maintains operatives across the region. Iran also has an array of mines that its navy could lay in the Strait of Hormuz. It could also isolate American minesweepers in the Persian Gulf on one side of the strait. But such an action would probably invite a massive American military response and further damage Iran’s already crippled economy, Admiral Donegan added. He also expressed concerns about the possibility that the Quds Force, a shadowy arm of Iran, could attack U.S. troops in Syria and Jordan, which he said are seeking to root out their military allies. He said Iran is strategically weaker but operationally still lethal across the Middle East.
In meetings at the White House, senior military officials have raised the need to prepare for that possibility, after Iranian officials threatened to mine the strait if the United States joined Israel’s attacks on the country.
Pentagon officials are considering all of the ways Iran could retaliate, as President Trump cryptically hints at what he might do, saying on Wednesday that he had not made a final decision.
In several days of attacks, Israel has targeted Iranian military sites and state-sponsored entities, as well as high-ranking generals. It has taken out many of Iran’s ballistic missiles, though Iran still has hundreds of them, U.S. defense officials said.
But Israel has steered clear of Iranian naval assets. So while Iran’s ability to respond has been severely damaged, it has a robust navy and maintains operatives across the region, where the United States has more than 40,000 troops. Iran also has an array of mines that its navy could lay in the Strait of Hormuz.
The narrow 90-mile waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean is a key shipping route. A quarter of the world’s oil and 20 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas passes through it, so mining the choke point would cause gas prices to soar.
Image A satellite image of the Strait of Hormuz, showing the Iranian coast at top, and Qeshm Island and the United Arab Emirates below. Credit… Gallo Images, via Getty Images
It could also isolate American minesweepers in the Persian Gulf on one side of the strait. Two defense officials indicated that the Navy was looking to disperse its ships in the gulf so that they would be less vulnerable. A Navy official declined to comment, citing operational security. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Iran has vowed that if attacked by American forces, it would respond forcefully, potentially setting off a cycle of escalation.
“Think about what happened in January 2020 after Trump killed Suleimani and times that by 100,” Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said.
Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Iranian general, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, during Mr. Trump’s first administration. Iran then launched the largest ever ballistic missile barrage at American bases in Iraq, leaving some 110 troops with traumatic brain injuries, and unintentionally hitting a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people aboard.
“Iran is strategically weaker but operationally still lethal across the region,” Mr. Katulis said, “and Americans still have troops across that part of the world.”
Iran has mined the Strait of Hormuz before, including in 1988 during its war with Iraq, when Iran planted 150 mines in the strait. One of the mines struck an American guided missile frigate, the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts, nearly sinking it.
Image The U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts being towed after hitting a mine in the Persian Gulf in April 1988. Credit… Associated Press
Gen. Joseph Votel, a former leader of U.S. Central Command, and Vice Adm. Kevin M. Donegan, a former commander of U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, each said on Wednesday that Iran was capable of mining the strait, which they said could bring international pressure on Israel to end its bombing campaign.
But such an action would probably invite a massive American military response and further damage Iran’s already crippled economy, Admiral Donegan added.
“Mining also hurts Iran; they would lose income from oil they sell to China,” he said. “Now though, Iranian leadership is much more concerned with regime survival, which will drive their decisions.”
Military officials and analysts said missile and drone attacks remained the biggest retaliatory threat to U.S. bases and facilities in the region. “These would be shorter-range variants, not what they were launching against Israel,” Admiral Donegan said. “That Iranian capability remains intact.”
Admiral Donegan also expressed concerns about the possibility that the Quds Force, a shadowy arm of Iran’s military, could attack U.S. troops. “Our Arab partners have done well over the years to root most of that out of their countries, however, that Quds Force and militia threat still remains in Iraq, and to some extent in Syria and Jordan,” he said.
Iranian officials are seeking to remind Mr. Trump that, weakened or not, they still can still find ways to hurt American troops and interests in the region, said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Striking Iran, he said, “gets into such big unknowns.” He added, “There are a lot of things that could go wrong.”
Image Damage from a suspected Iranian missile attack in Petah Tikva, Israel, this week. Credit… Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Much is at stake for Iran if it decides to retaliate. “Many of Iran’s options are the strategic equivalent of a suicide bombing,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “They can do enormous damage to others if they mine the Strait of Hormuz, destroy regional oil facilities and rain a missile barrage against Israel, but they may not survive the blowback.”
But Iran can make it hugely expensive, and dangerous, for the U.S. Navy to have to conduct what would most likely be a weekslong mine-clearing operation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to one former naval officer who was stationed on a minesweeper in the Persian Gulf. He and other Navy officers said that clearing the strait could also put American sailors directly in harm’s way.
Iran is believed to maintain a variety of naval mines. They include small limpet mines containing just a few pounds of explosives that swimmers place directly on a ship’s hull and typically detonate after a set amount of time. Iran also has larger moored mines that float just under the water’s surface, releasing a hundred pounds of explosive force or more when they come in contact with an unsuspecting ship.
More advanced “bottom” mines sit on the seafloor. They use a combination of sensors — such as magnetic, acoustic, pressure and seismic — to determine when a ship is nearby and explode with hundreds of pounds of explosive force.
The Navy has four minesweepers in the Persian Gulf, each with 100 sailors aboard who have been based in Bahrain and are trained in how to deal with underwater hazards.
Should Iran place mines in the Strait of Hormuz or other parts of the Persian Gulf, a small Navy contingent in Bahrain called Task Force 56 would respond.
Usually led by a senior explosive ordnance disposal officer, the task force would take advantage of technologies like autonomous underwater vehicles that can scan the seafloor with sonar much more quickly than the last time Iranian mines threatened the strait.
And while the Navy has been experimenting with underwater robots to destroy mines, the task force will still need to deploy small teams of explosive ordnance disposal divers for the time-consuming and dangerous task of approaching each mine underwater and carefully placing charges to destroy it.
Israel Iran War updates: Iranian missiles hit hospital, wound over 200, Israel threatens Iran’s top leader
Iranian missile strikes wounded at least 240 people in Israel, including 80 at Soroka Medical Centre. Israel retaliated with fresh attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, including the Arak heavy water reactor. Defence Minister Israel Katz directly threatened Iran’s Supreme Leader, while PM Netanyahu expressed confidence in U.S. support.
By CNBCTV18.COM | Jun 19, 2025 11:21 PM IST (Updated)
Israel-Iran War updates: Tensions between Israel and Iran have escalated after Iranian missile strikes wounded at least 240 people in Israel, including 80 at Soroka Medical Centre. Israel retaliated with fresh attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, including the Arak heavy water reactor. Defence Minister Israel Katz directly threatened Iran’s Supreme Leader, while PM Netanyahu expressed confidence in U.S. support. Iran denied targeting the hospital and claimed to have hit a military site. As the conflict intensifies, diplomatic moves are underway, with Iran’s foreign minister set to meet European leaders. The UN nuclear watchdog warns of limited oversight due to Iran’s restrictions on inspections.
Israel-Iran War updates: Tensions between Israel and Iran have escalated after Iranian missile strikes wounded at least 240 people in Israel, including 80 at Soroka Medical Centre. Israel retaliated with fresh attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, including the Arak heavy water reactor. Defence Minister Israel Katz directly threatened Iran’s Supreme Leader, while PM Netanyahu expressed confidence in U.S. support. Iran denied targeting the hospital and claimed to have hit a military site. As the conflict intensifies, diplomatic moves are underway, with Iran’s foreign minister set to meet European leaders. The UN nuclear watchdog warns of limited oversight due to Iran’s restrictions on inspections.
Israel-Iran live: Trump reveals timeline on Iran attack decision
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wraps up her press briefing. Questions were dominated by the conflict between Israel and Iran. Donald Trump said he will make a decision on attacking Iran in the next two weeks. But there were four critical words in the US president’s statement.
As Karoline Leavitt wraps up her press briefing, questions were dominated by the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The White House press secretary even read out a statement from Donald Trump, in which he said he will make a decision on attacking Iran in the next two weeks (see previous post).
But there were four critical words in the US president’s statement, our correspondent David Blevins has said, pointing out that Trump referred to a “substantial chance of negotiations”.
“She confirmed that the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was still in contact with the Iranians, and she talked about the president desiring diplomacy, but being unafraid to take military action if required,” he said.
“She talked about the proposal to Iran being reasonable and rational, and said regime change was not the president’s priority right now.”
Blevins describes it as “quite a telling” press briefing, with confirmation that Trump is leaving perhaps as long as two weeks before he decides on exactly whether or not there will be US military action against Iran.
Israel hits nuclear sites, Iran strikes hospital as war escalates
Israel says it hit Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities again. Revolutionary Guards say missiles targeted industrial areas in Israel. While Trump keeps world guessing, special envoy Witkoff has spoken to Iranian foreign minister. Iran warns against ‘third party’ joining conflict purposefully or accidentally. The internet has been shut down and the public media has stopped giving updates on the death toll, showing widespread images of destruction inside Iran. The extent of the damage inside Iran has become more difficult to assess in recent days, with the authorities seeking to prevent panic by limiting information. The White House said Trump would make a decision on whether to join the war in the next two weeks. It has been fighting on several fronts since October 7, 2023, attack on the Palestinian militant group Hamas by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The war has weakened Iran’s regional allies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and has bombed Iran’s Houthis in Yemen’s Yemen and bombed Yemen’s Hezbollah in the past week.
Revolutionary Guards say missiles targeted industrial areas in Israel
While Trump keeps world guessing, special envoy Witkoff has spoken to Iranian foreign minister
Iran warns against ‘third party’ joining conflict
TEL AVIV/DUBAI, June 19 (Reuters) – Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight, as a week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.
Following the strike that damaged the Soroka medical centre in Israel’s southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran’s “tyrants” would pay the “full price”.
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“Are we targeting the downfall of the regime? That may be a result, but it’s up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom,” Netanyahu said. “Freedom requires these subjugated people to rise up, and it’s up to them, but we may create conditions that will help them do it.”
Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the “Ayatollah regime”.
As darkness fell on Thursday evening, Iranian media reported air defences engaging “hostile targets” in northern Tehran.
Israel’s sweeping campaign of airstrikes aims to do more than destroy Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and missile capabilities. It seeks to shatter the foundations of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s government and leave it near collapse, Israeli, Western and regional officials said.
Netanyahu wants Iran weakened enough to be forced into fundamental concessions on permanently abandoning its nuclear enrichment, its ballistic missile programme and its support for militant groups across the region, the sources said.
U.S. President Donald Trump , meanwhile, has kept the world guessing, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it.
The White House said Trump would make a decision in the next two weeks.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday, citing a message from the president.
Three diplomats told Reuters that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since last week.
In an apparent reference to the U.S., Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said on Thursday it would use a different strategy if a “third party” joined Israel in the war.
STRAIT OF HORMUZ THREAT
Earlier, Israel said it had struck Iran’s Natanz, Isfahan and Khondab nuclear sites. It initially said it had also hit Bushehr, site of Iran’s only functioning nuclear power plant , but a spokesperson later said it was a mistake to have said this.
An Iranian diplomat told Reuters Bushehr was not hit and Israel was engaged in “psychological warfare” by discussing it. Any attack on the plant, near Arab neighbours and housing Russian technicians, is viewed as risking nuclear disaster.
Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel.
On Thursday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had launched combined missile and drone attacks at military and industrial sites linked to Israel’s defence industry in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Smoke rises following an Israeli attack in Tehran, Iran, June 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
Israel reported missiles launched from Iran towards its territory.
Iran has been weighing its wider options in responding to the biggest security challenge since its 1979 revolution. A member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee Presidium, Behnam Saeedi, told the semi-official Mehr news agency Iran could consider closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of daily global oil consumption passes.
‘STAY AWAY FROM OUR COUNTRY’
Israel, which has the most advanced military in the Middle East, has been fighting on several fronts since the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered the Gaza war
It has severely weakened Iran’s regional allies, Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and has bombed Yemen’s Houthis.
The extent of the damage inside Iran has become more difficult to assess in recent days, with the authorities apparently seeking to prevent panic by limiting information.
Iran has stopped giving updates on the death toll, and state media have ceased showing widespread images of destruction. The internet has been almost completely shut down, and the public has been banned from filming.
Arash, 33, a government employee in Tehran, said a building next to his home in Tehran’s Shahrak-e Gharb neighbourhood had been destroyed in the strikes.
“I saw at least three dead children and two women in that building. Is this how Netanyahu plans to ‘liberate’ Iranians? Stay away from our country,” he told Reuters by telephone.
Thousands of residents have fled Tehran, a city of 10 million, jamming the highways out.
Samira, 11, moved in with her grandparents in the northwestern city of Urmia after her family fled Tehran when a shopping centre near their house was struck. She said she has been unable to sleep at night.
“I’m afraid Israel will hit our home and my mom will die. I’m too scared. I just want to go home,” she said by phone.
Inside Israel, the missile strikes over the past week are the first time a significant number of projectiles from Iran have pierced defences and killed Israelis in their homes.
The director general of the Israeli hospital that was damaged in Beersheba, Shlomi Kodesh, told reporters at the site that a missile strike had destroyed several wards and wounded 40 people, mostly staff and patients.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted Israeli military and intelligence headquarters near the hospital. An Israeli military official denied there were military targets nearby.
Missiles also hit a residential building in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.
“It’s very scary,” said Yaniv, 34, who lives nearby. He said he heard a deafening explosion when the missile hit, shaking his apartment tower.
the main known facilities of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Reporting by Reuters Writing by Michael Georgy and Alex Richardson Editing by Peter Graff, Frances Kerry and Nia Williams
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