Biden, US officials were surprised by scale of Iranian attack on Israel – report
Administration officials had a plan to handle some 50 ballistic missiles and were deeply concerned when more than 100 were fired, WSJ says
US President Joe Biden and security officials watched with “mounting alarm” as the scale of Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel became clear last weekend, according to a Sunday report.
“This was on the high end, I think, of what we were anticipating,” a senior official was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying of the moments the scope of the Iranian barrage became clear.
An unnamed official told the newspaper that it was “unclear until all was said and done” whether Israel’s missile defenses and the coalition of countries involved in shooting down projectiles had succeeded.
The report said that as it became evident in the run-up to the attack by Iran that something was going to happen, a team of US military personnel was secretly sent to Tel Aviv to work at “a missile defense operations center.”
US officials were confident they could help counter around 50 ballistic missiles, and became deeply concerned when it became clear that over 100 had been fired by Iran, according to the report.
The Israel Defense Forces said Iran’s attack on Israel included 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles, of which 99 percent were intercepted.
The newspaper said that plans were drawn up for Saudi and Jordanian planes to defend their airspaces if necessary. Jordan shot down the projectiles that passed over its airspace while the US, UK, France and Germany helped Israeli aircraft shoot down others en route to Israel.
Iran launched more than 300 projectiles at Israel, comprising 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles. The vast majority of them were destroyed by Israel and its allies, and the only Israeli military target hit in the attack was the Nevatim Air Base, which did not suffer significant damage.
The attack came in response to an alleged Israeli attack on a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Seven Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard personnel were killed in the attack, including two generals.
Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s reprisal attack, and allegedly did so on Thursday night, when the Natanz nuclear base in the Iranian city of Isfahan was targeted.
Israel has not officially commented on the strike, while Iran has downplayed the incident and insisted that only three small drones — and no missiles — were involved in the attack.
The US demonstrated its close alliance with Israel by helping it thwart last week’s Iranian attack and slapping more sanctions on the Islamic Republic afterward. The Biden administration has been striving to keep the situation in the Middle East from escalating amid the ongoing war in Gaza and skyrocketing tensions with Tehran.
Following last week’s Iranian attack, Biden reiterated the US’s unwavering support for Israel but also urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “think carefully and strategically about the risk of escalation,” adding that Israel had successfully demonstrated its military superiority and it did not need to strike back to prove its capabilities.
