News Center- Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran early on Friday, targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters, nuclear facilities and military sites across Iran.

One target was the Natanz nuclear facility, a key site for uranium enrichment.

Four intense explosions were heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the state broadcaster, reported early on Friday. According to the IRNA, the explosions could be heard in the city’s eastern, western and central neighborhoods.

Iran state media said five people had been killed and 20 wounded in Israel’s strikes. Majid Farshi, Director General of Crisis Management for East Azerbaijan Province, told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) that several sites were targeted in the attacks, including the Karimi military base in Saeedabad, the Al-Zahra garrison in Amand, and a radar center in Sardroud. Two people have been killed and six others injured in Israeli strikes on military sites in the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran, Majid Farshi said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed that Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, had been killed in the strikes. Iran state media announced that Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, had been killed in the strikes.

The IRNA said that Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces, had been killed in Israel’s strikes.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack, dubbed Rising Lion, would take many days and was aimed at “rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”.

Israel declares state of emergency

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a special state of emergency across the country, following what he described as “Israel's preemptive strike against Iran."