(Bloomberg) — Iran is planning a counterattack on Israel involving more powerful warheads and other weapons, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Iranian and Arab officials briefed on the plans.
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Iran isn’t planning to limit its response to missiles and drones, the Journal said Sunday, citing the officials. The newspaper noted it remains to be seen whether the threats are real.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Sunday the country will “certainly” launch a new attack against Israel, a day after its supreme leader vowed a harsh retaliation.
“Details cannot be discussed, but it will certainly be carried out,” Ali Fadavi, the IRGC’s deputy commander in chief, was cited as saying by the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency.
ISNA said the possible attack is expected to be named Operation True Promise 3, in line with previous missile strikes on Israel in April and October.
On Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tehran and its regional allies would deliver a “crushing response” to Israel, as well as the US. Israel’s Oct. 26 attack, using more than 100 fighter jets on military targets across Iran, killed five people, including a civilian.
Separately, Israel’s military said an elite commando unit captured “an Iranian terror network operative” in Syria. The operation in southern Syria “took place in recent months” and thwarted a future attack, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Telegram, without providing specifics.
Ali Soleiman al-Assi, a Syrian citizen, was detained for interrogation, the statement said, adding his “activities included gathering intelligence on IDF troops in the border area for future terror activity.”
–With assistance from Ian Fisher.
(Updates with details of Israel’s raid in final two paragraphs.)
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