The Israeli Air Force said the strikes also hit military production sites that produced and assembled ballistic missiles.
The Israeli Air Force struck two more of Iran’s nuclear sites on June 19, including a nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium and the country’s largest uranium enrichment facility.
Just before 5 a.m. local time in Tehran, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), on its Farsi-language channel, issued a warning urging anyone within 2 kilometers of the inactive Arak nuclear plant, since renamed Khondab, to evacuate immediately. Internet access in Iran has been cut for nearly 24 hours, according to NetBlocks, a global internet monitor. The regime imposed a nationwide shutdown, citing Israel’s alleged misuse of the network for military purposes.
The IDF later said that Israel’s air force had conducted strikes on Arak and another site at Natanz used to enrich nuclear material, as part of a wave of attacks on military targets in Tehran and other areas.
The Israeli Air Force said the strikes also hit military production sites that produced and assembled ballistic missiles, as well as Iranian air defense systems, including air defense batteries, missile storage sites, and radars.
The attacks were part of “the Air Force’s extensive operations to damage the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program,” it said.
About 200 kilometers southwest of Tehran, the inactive Arak Nuclear Complex (IR-40), built in the 2000s for nuclear research and isotope production, hosts Iran’s IR-40 heavy water nuclear reactor.
The site has been the focus of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring due to its potential for producing plutonium used in nuclear weapons. Iran’s current nuclear weapons potential is based on enriched uranium, as the regime does not have the capacity to process spent fuel from the reactor into weapons-grade plutonium.
The strikes on Arak “targeted components of the reactor designed to produce plutonium, in order to prevent its capability from being restored to nuclear weapons production,” the IDF said.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a statement to Al Jazeera that no casualties were reported, and that “due to preemptive safety measures taken beforehand, there is no threat or harm posed to residents in the vicinity of the mentioned site.”
The organization said it had reported the attack to the IAEA.
By Melanie Sun
