Israel Breaks Record with Strike on Airfield in Northeast Iran, 1400 Miles Away
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) broke its own distance record on Sunday with a strike on a refueling plane at the airfield at Mashhad in northeast Iran, at a distance of 2,300 kilometers (over 1,400 miles) from Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement:
A short while ago, the IAF struck an Iranian aerial refueling aircraft at Mashhad Airport in eastern Iran, approximately 2,300 kilometers from Israel. The IAF is operating to establish aerial superiority over Iranian airspace.
This marks the longest-range strike conducted since the beginning of the operation.
The Times of Israel added:
A large fire could be seen at Mashhad Airport following the Israeli strike.
…
The strike on Mashhad Airport potentially marks the Israeli Air Force’s farthest-ever strike. In 1985, the IAF struck the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Tunisia, also over 2,000 kilometers from Israel.
Israel has also struck targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen, roughly 1,800 kilometers (over 1,100 miles) away.
Israel has already achieved total freedom of operation in the skies above Tehran, the Iranian capital, and western Iran. Now it is working to achieve freedom of operation across all of Iranian territory.
With freedom of operation, Israel can target distant targets, including nuclear sites and ballistic missile launchers. It can also target efforts to rearm the Iranian military — or efforts by Iranian officials to escape.
Iran fired a missile barrage at Israel on Sunday, one of its few daytime attacks, but all of the missiles were reportedly intercepted and there were no additional casualties.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
