The IDF struck Iran’s primary site for producing missiles and naval sea mines in the central city of Yazd on Friday morning, as a sweeping overnight air campaign hit weapons manufacturing infrastructure from Tehran to Tabriz and left residents across Iran reporting explosions, shockwaves, and columns of smoke in the predawn hours.

The Yazd facility, the IDF said, served as the nerve center of the Iranian Navy’s missile development program — the site where Iran planned, developed, assembled, and stored advanced missiles designed to be launched from cruise platforms, submarines, and helicopters against both mobile and stationary maritime targets. The IDF described it as the location where the Iranian Navy developed the majority of its missiles and sea mines.

Earlier Friday, the IDF confirmed a separate wave of overnight strikes targeting ballistic missile and air defense production sites across Iran. In Tehran, Israeli forces struck sites and infrastructure used by the Iranian regime to manufacture weapons, including ballistic missiles. In western Iran, the Israel Air Force used intelligence to locate and hit missile launchers and missile storage sites it said were actively threatening Israel.

Eyewitness accounts gathered by the London-based anti-regime outlet Iran International painted a picture of a country-wide campaign. Citizens reported strikes and fighter jet activity across a wide swath of Iran between 3 and 3:30 a.m., with impacts reported in Tehran, Ahvaz, Abadan, Garmdarreh, Parand, Robat Karim, Andisheh, Karaj, Shahinshahr, Hamedan, Isfahan, Tabriz, and beyond.

One Tehran resident told the outlet that “three heavy and deep explosions” were felt in the capital shortly after 3 a.m. Another reported seeing columns of smoke rising from the city’s west and northwest. A third described hearing “a terrible sound and felt a very strong shockwave” near IRGC barracks in Tehran’s 21st district. A Tabriz resident reported an airstrike near the neighborhood housing a Communications Ministry Space Propulsion Research Institute.

Iranian reports also claimed that one of the targets struck was the residence of the father of Hassan Karami, a senior IRGC officer and former police commander who oversaw units that gained international notoriety for the lethal suppression of anti-government protesters in 2019.

Since Operation Roaring Lion began on February 28, the IAF has dropped nearly 15,000 munitions on targets across Iran. That figure climbs above 25,000 when combined with American munitions expended during the concurrent U.S. campaign, Operation Epic Fury.

The strikes came hours after Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a direct warning that Israel’s air campaign would intensify and expand. “Prime Minister Netanyahu and I warned the Iranian terrorist regime to stop firing missiles at the civilian population in Israel,” Katz said. “Despite our warnings, the firing continued, and therefore, the IDF’s attacks on Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating the means of warfare against the citizens of Israel.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)