"True Promise' Operation achieved goal and is over, says Tehran

A bullish Iranian government hailed its unprecedented direct strike on Israel as a success yesterday and said that as far as it was concerned the military operation was now over, as it had struck most of the military targets it had intended as a reprisal for the Israeli assault on Iran's consulate in Damascus on 1 April.

- Patrick Wintour

The chief of the general staff, Gen Mohammad Bagheri, claimed that an Israeli intelligence centre close to the Syrian border and an airbase had been destroyed "to a significant extent and put out of operation".

Iran said the large airbase 9 miles south-east of Be'er Sheva had been used by Israeli F-35s in its strike on the consulate.

Ignoring the fact that almost all the drones dispatched from Iran had been shot down by Israeli, US, British and French forces, Bagheri hailed the operation as "a well-planned attack with appropriate design... that neither the Iron Dome nor the missile defence shield of the Zionist regime could significantly counter. This operation achieved its goal."

He said the attack, known as Operation True Promise, had been carried out only by forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).