TEHRAN: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was reportedly slightly injured during an Israeli airstrike on a covert underground site in Tehran last month, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
On June 16, six bombs were said to have hit access and exit points of a secret facility in northwestern Tehran, where Pezeshkian was attending an emergency session of the Supreme National Security Council.
The explosion reportedly caused leg injuries to the president as he and others evacuated through an emergency shaft. The strikes also disabled the ventilation system and cut off power to the facility.
While videos circulating on social media during the 12-day conflict showed multiple explosions near a mountainside in the area, it has only recently emerged that the location housed Iran’s top leadership at the time of the attack.
Israel has not commented on the reports, and the Fars account has not been independently verified.
Iranian authorities are reportedly investigating a possible infiltration by Israeli agents. President Pezeshkian recently accused Israel of attempting to assassinate him, a charge that was dismissed by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who stated regime change was never an objective.
The initial Israeli offensive reportedly killed numerous top commanders of the IRGC and army, catching Iranian leadership off guard and triggering a delay in decision-making in the first 24 hours.
Israeli sources have acknowledged Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was also a target but lost track of him after he was relocated to a secure and isolated location.
The precision of the strikes has raised questions about how Israeli intelligence was able to locate high-ranking officials and classified sites.
On June 13, Israel launched a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, citing a need to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which responded with aerial attacks, denies seeking nuclear arms and maintains its uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes.
Later, on June 22, the U.S. Air Force and Navy conducted coordinated strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. Former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the operations “obliterated” the targets, although some intelligence agencies have taken a more cautious stance regarding the extent of the damage.
(With inputs from BBC)
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