The U.S. military has shot down an unspecified number of drones fired by Iran targeting Israel, according to a defense official.
Iran launched a significant number of drones and missiles toward Israel on Saturday in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed a senior Iranian military leader at the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria. The attack, which Iranian leaders had threatened to carry out since the April 1 strike, is ongoing as of Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday.
“In accordance with our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, U.S. forces in the region continue to shoot down Iranian-launched drones targeting Israel,” the official said. “Our forces remain postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect U.S. forces operating in the region.”
Israel’s own air defense systems have intercepted an unclear number of drones in various parts of the country. Its air sirens, a method that informs civilians of an incoming aerial attack and the need to get to a bomb shelter, sounded in the southern and northern parts of the country, in addition to in Jerusalem.
The U.S. military moved additional assets into the Middle East to boost their deterrence efforts ahead of the attack.
President Joe Biden has reiterated as the attacks occur that the U.S.’s commitment to Israel “is ironclad.” He is meeting with his national security team in the situation room at the White House.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas from engulfing the entire region in a war.
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Grant Shapps, the United Kingdom’s secretary of state for defense, said the U.K. deployed additional Royal Air Force assets that “will intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions, as required.”
The tension in the Middle East is occurring as Israeli leaders have threatened to respond to any Iranian attack. Israel and Iran have fought for years but through Tehran’s network of proxy forces throughout the Middle East. That Iran’s response came from within its own borders represents a new development in the conflict.