War is one step closer

Israel attacks Iran at nuke site | Appeals for calm snubbed

- CHRIS HUGHES

ISRAEL was last night bracing itself for revenge attacks after Benjamin Netanyahu ignored Western pleas for calm and launched a missile strike in Iran.

As the Middle East edged closer to all-out war, experts fear Tehran may hit back over the targeting of an air base at Isfahan, which is close to a nuclear site.

Iranian sites inside Syria and Iraq were also hit in revenge for last Saturday's missile and drone attack in Israel.

Iran played down yesterday's strike, insisting it was not planning any attack in response. But one Western security source warned it could easily happen again, given the fact it has already hit Israel in revenge for an Israeli strike on its consular building in Syria which killed 13.

The source said: "The strikes in Iran, whilst demonstrative, should be the end of it but Tehran may believe it has now broken the unspoken rule of never directly attacking Israel.

"And it may well do it again just to test the reaction and that's where it will escalate."

It is not yet known if the Iranian military base was hit with a single missile strike, a drone or a number of drones. But several explosions were heard during the early morning.

Netanyahu's former chief of staff Natan Eshel said: "We proved to Iran we can infiltrate and strike within their border and they weren't able to inside ours. The messages are more important than the grandstanding"