Dubai, 13 June

Israel attacked Iran's capital early Friday in strikes that targeted the country's nuclear programme and killed at least two top military officers, raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq.

The strikes came amid simmering tensions over Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme and appeared certain to trigger a reprisal, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning that “severe punishment” would be directed at Israel.

Multiple sites around the country were hit, including Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air.

The leader of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen Hossein Salami, was confirmed dead, Iranian state television reported, a development that is a significant blow to Tehran's governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of its long-simmering conflict with Israel.

The chief of staff of Iranian armed forces, Gen Mohammad Bagheri, was also confirmed dead by Iranian state television. Other top military officials and scientists were believed to have been killed.

In Washington, the Trump administration, which had cautioned Israel against an attack during continued negotiations over Iran's nuclear enrichment programme, said that it had not been involved and warned against any retaliation targeting US interests or personnel.

Still, it seemed likely the US suspected an attack could be in the offing, with Washington on Wednesday pulling some American diplomats from Iraq's capital and offering voluntary evacuations for the families of US troops in the wider Middle East.

Israeli leaders cast the preemptive assault as a fight for the nation's survival that was necessary to head off an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that or whether Iran had actually been planning a strike soon.

“It could be a year. It could be within a few months," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to “remove this threat.”

"This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival,” he said.

Khamenei issued a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. It confirmed that top military officials and scientists had been killed in the attack.

Israel “opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centers,” Khamenei said.

For Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel's ongoing and increasingly unpopular war in Gaza, which is now over 20 months old. There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat, and Israel's opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, offered his “full support” for the mission against Iran. But if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli casualties or major disruptions to daily life, Netanyahu could see public opinion quickly shift.