Iran Israel Crisis News Live Updates, 19 April: The Middle East plunged deeper into crisis on Friday, as Israel carried out a missile strike targeting an air defense unit in Syria, its state-run SANA news agency quoted a military statement as saying. However, Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war. Earlier in the day, Iran fired its air defenses after explosions were heard and drones spotted near a major base at the city of Isfahan, reports said. It remained unclear if the country was under attack by Israel.
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Reacting to the ‘attack’, senior Iranian official said that the country has “no plan for immediate retaliation against Israel”, reported Reuters. According to a senior commander of Iran’s Army Siavosh Mihandoust, no damage was caused in the blast. Isfahan province houses several of Iran’s nuclear sites, including Natanz, centerpiece of the country’s uranium enrichment programme.
In light of the events, airlines changed flight paths over Iran, diverted to alternate airports or returned to sites of departures as the country closed its airspace. By 0445 GMT the airports and airspace had reopened, and closure notices posted on a US Federal Aviation Administration database had been removed.
Events so far: The escalation comes in the aftermath of Tehran launching over 300 drones and missiles towards Israeli territory in a retaliatory attack on April 14. These strikes were a response to an Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus on April 1, which resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people, including two high-ranking members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
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