Israel Continues to Pound Iran, Destroys a Third of Iran’s Ballistic Missile Launchers

Reports indicate Israel is also hitting the terror regime’s nuclear sites. Times of Israel: Israel on Sunday attacked dozens of sites in Iran — including energy sites, radar systems, and ballistic missiles and their launchers — and killed Iran’s top intelligence officers on the third day of its ongoing campaign against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Israel Defense Forces also bombed an Iranian refueling plane at Mashhad Airport in northeast Iran, some 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) from Israel, marking what it said was the most distant strike since the beginning of the operation (Times of Israel).

What did the IAF accomplish in Iran last night?

20+ surface-to-surface missiles were dismantled minutes before they were to be launched toward Israel’s home front.

Approx. 100 military targets were struck in Isfahan, central Iran.

Around 50 fighter jets and aircraft… pic.twitter.com/8FLXjp6qI0

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 16, 2025

Jerusalem Post: Surface-to-surface missile sites in central Iran have been struck by the IDF overnight between Sunday and Monday, the military said. Saudi state-owned news source Al-Arabiya reported that Israeli forces had struck targets in the area of the city of Natanz in central Iran. Other initial reports stated Israeli forces were simultaneously carrying out large-scale attacks on other nuclear sites across Iran…. Hours before the Israeli strikes, a 2.5 magnitude earthquake was reported in the Qom Province near the Fordow nuclear facility, according to the Iranian Seismological Center. Around the same time, Iranian media reported Israeli airstrikes at the Fordow nuclear facility (Jerusalem Post).

Meanwhile: Iran is targeting civilian centers in Tel Aviv: Where is the international community? (X)

The Islamic Regime in Iran is shooting missiles at Israeli civilians.

Where is the outrage?
Where is the UN?
Where are the world leaders?

Their silence is deafening. pic.twitter.com/h4S51OBuir

— Vivid. (@VividProwess) June 15, 2025

Israel destroyed a third of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, IDF says

The Islamic Republic was only able to fire around half of the missiles it had intended to fire on Israel overnight.
IAF strikes surface-to-air missile launchers in Tehran, June 15, 2025.

By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, June 16, 2025:

IDF Chief Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin on Monday announced that the air force has destroyed a third of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, 120 in total.

Each launcher could have fired dozens of missiles over the course of the current war.

Overnight, Defrin said that the air force also destroyed 20 ballistic missiles that were on their way to being fired. This means that given that Iran fired 40 ballistic missiles, it would have fired at least 60, without getting into how many missiles it lost the ability to fire, given its losses in the area of missile launchers.

Also, Defrin said that the air force launched 50 aircraft, which struck around 100 targets over the course of the last day.

Netanyahu’s Nerves of Steel: A Victory for the West

“Bibi does not chicken out.” Reuel Marc Gerecht: Jerusalem might have saved the Middle East from an imminent nuclear-arms race by giving nonproliferation what it’s been lacking—teeth. Beyond the bomb, Russia and China, who have been back-stopping the Islamic Republic, will likely re-evaluate the utility of Iranian power in the Middle East. The axis will likely survive—anti-Americanism is a powerful binding agent—but Tehran has become even more of a supplicant and less of a partner. There is no downside to this revisionist axis weakening (Wall Street Journal).

Niall Ferguson—who has framed our period of history as Cold War II: One better way to look at what we are watching is simply that Netanyahu is fulfilling his historical mission. He long ago vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons on the grounds that this would be the precursor to a second Holocaust. Few believed he would actually resort to war to deliver on this vow. But he has. But widen the aperture beyond Israel. It is illuminating to put this latest Israeli coup in the broader context of the global war we’ve been in since 2018: Cold War II. As we have seen more than once in the past year, Bibi Does Not Chicken Out. And that means that, whether it was intended or not, the United States and its principal Middle Eastern ally have today taken a vital first step toward restoring the credibility of the West. Of course, the final outcome of Cold War II will not be decided at Natanz and Fordow, any more than it will be decided at Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka, where fighting has been raging between Russian and Ukrainian forces this week. The decisive battle will be fought—or not—over Taiwan. The ultimate verdict on the grand strategy of Donald Trump, if such a thing exists, will therefore depend on how successfully he contends with the Chinese challenge to American primacy. For now, however, those who have criticized the president for his erratic trade policy—myself included—must admit our misjudgment. The trade war has turned out to be a phony war. This is the real thing. And so far, at least, our side is winning (Free Press).