By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency reports

Tension has continued to mount between Israel and Iran as the former yesterday vowed that Tehran will burn if Iran keeps targeting its civilians and boasted it now has control of the airspace from western Iran all the way to the capital.

Israel had launched an early morning attack on Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear site, with US President Donald Trump describing the attack as successful, and urged Iran to make a nuclear deal while it still had time.

The attack comes days before scheduled nuclear talks between the US and Iran, which Tehran has now suspended after it fired retaliatory missiles on Israel.

Israel has since closed its airspace and diplomatic missions worldwide in readiness for further attacks.
Several airlines cancelled flights over parts of the Middle East on Friday following Israeli airstrikes though on Saturday morning, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria reopened their airspace.

Delivering the warning yesterday, Israel Katz, Israeli Defence Minister, said: “The Iranian dictator is turning the citizens of Iran into hostages and bringing about a reality in which they, especially the residents of Tehran, will pay a heavy price because of the criminal harm to Israeli civilians.

“If (Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles toward the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn.”

The Israeli military said its raids had cleared its path to the capital. “We have created aerial freedom of action from western Iran to Tehran. Tehran is no longer immune,” said spokesman, Brigadier General Effie Defrin.

Yesterday, the Israeli military said it had Tehran in its sights after strikes on dozens of missile launchers and air defences.

“The way to Iran has been paved,” the military’s chief of staff and air force chief were quoted as saying in a statement.

The military “is proceeding according to its operational plans, and (Israeli air force) fighter jets are set to resume striking targets in Tehran,” it added.

Iran’s UN ambassador said 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in Friday’s first wave of Israeli strikes.

Iranian media reported two Revolutionary Guards killed Saturday in an Israeli strike on a base in the country’s centre.

Iran called on its citizens to unite in the country’s defence as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to rise up.

A report in Iran’s Mehr news agency said the Islamic Republic had warned Britain, France and the United States it could retaliate if they came to Israel’s defence.

“Any country that participates in repelling Iranian attacks on Israel will be subject to Iranian forces targeting all regional bases of the complicit government,” it said without citing any officials.

Overnight, air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel, with many residents holed up in bomb shelters.

The Israeli military said three people were killed and 76 injured in Israel since Iran began its attacks.
Israel said dozens of missiles, some intercepted, had been fired from Iran.

Speaking to CNN, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said Iran had fired three salvos of ballistic missiles on Friday, some 150 in total.

“We expect that the Iranians, who have a considerable volume of ballistic missiles, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,000, will continue to fire them,” Leiter said.

As fears mounted of wider conflict, UN chief Antonio Guterres called on both sides to cease fire.
“Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail,” he said on X late Friday.
Pope Leo XIV appealed for Israel and Iran to show “responsibility and reason”.