Tehran attacked: Iran's Khamenei vows retaliation, says Israel will face 'bitter and painful' end

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lambasted Israel's recent strike on Iran's capital, Tehran, insisting that the Jewish nation would face “severe punishment”. On Friday morning, the Iranian Supreme Leader issued a statement, which was carried out by the country’s state-run IRNA news agency.

In the statement, it was confirmed that the top military officials and scientists had been killed in the strikes that also targeted nuclear and military sites. “Israel opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centres,” Khamenei said in the statement.

“With this crime, the Zionist regime has set itself up for a bitter and painful fate, and it will receive it,” he added.

Iran unleashes massive drone strike

In the first signs of counterstrikes, Israel said that Iran had launched 100 drones towards Israel and that its air defences were intercepting them outside Israeli territory. Soon after the incident, neighbouring Jordan said its air force and defence systems had intercepted several missiles and drones that had entered its airspace, raising concerns about a conflict spillover.

The Iranian leadership vowed both a military and diplomatic response, saying women and children had been killed in the strikes across Iran. In a furious statement, the Iranian government accused Israel of terrorism and insisted the attack demonstrated it “does not adhere to any international rules or laws and, like a drunkard, openly and brazenly engages in terror and ignites the flames of war before the eyes of the world, including westerners who claim to uphold human rights and international law.”

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“Starting a war with Iran is playing with the lion’s tail,” the statement added. The statement also argued why the country would now be trying to assemble a nuclear bomb in the face of Israel’s attacks, the statement further said: “The world now better understands Iran’s insistence on the right to enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power, and the enemy has made it possible to prove our injustice and righteousness, who is the aggressor and which regime is threatening the security of the region." The world will now be looking at how Iran will respond to the Israeli attack.