Drone wounds two in northern Israel, Iran's missile system damaged by strikes

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, aged 85, is reportedly seriously ill, with his second oldest son, Mojtaba Khamenei, likely to succeed him when he dies, a Saturday New York Times report disclosed. 

The report noted that Khamenei's serious medical condition created a "quiet battle" over his succession. It also stated that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would have a say in who would become the Ayatollah's successor.

Concern grew over Khamenei's successor after former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash last May.

Khamenei has served as Supreme Leader since 1989, when Ruhollah Khomeini, the first to hold the title, died.

Report comes after Israel's response to Iran's ballistic missile attack

The Times report came shortly after Israel responded to Iran's ballistic missile attack at the beginning of the month by striking numerous military sites early Saturday morning.

IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with President Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet in Tehran, last month. (credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

Iranian officials have said that they do not want escalation with Israel, the Times report added.

While attacking military targets in Iran, reports said that Israel had also attacked targets in Iraq and Syria.

Commercial satellite imagery showed that Israeli airstrikes hit buildings during an attack on Saturday that Iran used for mixing solid fuel for ballistic missiles, according to separate assessments by two American researchers.

The judgments were reached by David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security research group, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank.

They told Reuters separately that Israel struck Parchin, a massive military complex near Tehran. Israel also hit Khojir, according to Eveleth, a sprawling missile production site near Tehran.

Reuters reported in July that Khojir was undergoing massive expansion.

Eveleth said the Israeli strikes may have "significantly hampered Iran's ability to mass produce missiles."

A screengrab shows an Israel Air Force plane, which the Israeli army says is departing to carry out strikes on Iran, from a handout video released on October 26, 2024. (credit: ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

The Israeli military said three waves of Israeli jets struck missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran early on Saturday in retaliation for Tehran's October 1 barrage of more than 200 missiles against Israel.

Iran's military said the Israeli warplanes used "very light warheads" to strike border radar systems in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, and around Tehran.

Ballistic missile fuel storage buildings hit

Eveleth said that an image from Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, showed that an Israeli strike destroyed two buildings in Khojir where solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed.

The buildings were enclosed by high dirt berms, according to the image reviewed by Reuters. Such structures are associated with missile production and are designed to stop a blast in one building from detonating combustible materials in nearby structures.

Planet Labs imagery of Parchin showed that Israel destroyed three ballistic missile solid fuel mixing buildings and a warehouse, he said.

Albright said he reviewed low-resolution commercial satellite imagery of Parchin that appeared to show that an Israeli strike damaged three buildings, including two in which solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed.

He did not identify the commercial firm from which he obtained the images.

The buildings, he said, are located about 350 yards from a facility once involved in what the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and US intelligence say was a comprehensive nuclear weapons development program that Iran shuttered in 2003. Iran denies having such a program.

"Israel says they targeted buildings housing solid-fuel mixers," Eveleth said. "These industrial mixers are hard to make and export-controlled. Iran imported many over the years at great expense and will likely have a hard time replacing them."

'highly accurate' strikes 

With a limited operation, he said, Israel may have struck a significant blow against Iran's ability to mass-produce missiles and made it more difficult for any future Iranian missile attack to pierce Israel's missile defenses.

"The strikes appear to be highly accurate," he said.

Iran has the Middle East's largest missile arsenal and supplied missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine and to Yemen's Houthi rebels and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, according to US officials.

Tehran and Moscow deny that Russia has received Iranian missiles.

Planet Labs imagery reviewed earlier this year by Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey showed major expansions at Khojir and the Modarres military complex near Tehran that the pair assessed were for boosting missile production, Reuters reported.

Three senior Iranian officials confirmed that conclusion.

Following sirens in the Western and Upper Galilee, two drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and were intercepted over open areas, the IDF announced early on Sunday morning.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Tehran on Saturday against responding to Israel's strikes on military sites in Iran and said he stressed in a call to his Israeli counterpart the opportunities to de-escalate tensions in the region.

"Iran should not make the mistake of responding to Israel's strikes, which should mark the end of this exchange," Austin said in a statement.

The IDF decided to postpone soldier recruitment, beginning Sunday, due to fear of an Iranian response that could include a missile attack on Israel, Israeli media reported on Saturday night.

The postponement will reportedly last till the end of the week.