IRGC: Iran hit Haifa refinery twice, killed 36 in attack on Mossad facility during 12-day war

Iran launched several attacks on key Israeli sites during the 12-day conflict in mid-June, including two successful missile strikes on the Haifa oil refinery and a raid directed at a Mossad installation, according to a spokesman for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Speaking during a ceremony on Sunday, Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini said Iran hit Israel’s largest oil refinery in the Israeli-controlled city of Haifa twice and killed 36 during an attack targeting a facility of the regime’s intelligence agency.

He added that Israel launched its war against Iran after a “miscalculation”, assuming that the country was weakened and unable to respond to the regime’s attacks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile centers and the assassination of its commanders.

On June 13, Israel launched an unprovoked war against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.

More than a week later, the United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault.

Responding to a question about Iran’s not asking for help from China and Russia during the 12-day war, Naeini said, “Military interventions and engaging in wars are done based on military treaties; we did not have a military pact with China and Russia and so we did not make any requests."

He emphasized that Iran’s strategy was to counter the narrative of a “weak Iran” and to do so, it was necessary to demonstrate that Iran is capable of standing up even against the entire NATO.

The IRGC spokesman said Iran did not receive military support but only political and intelligence aid from China and Russia.

He noted that Iran fired 14 missiles at the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the most important US base in the region, with six of them hitting the target. He added that the Americans, as asserted by themselves, spent 111 million dollars on tracking Iranian missiles.

Naeini once again reiterated Iran’s opposition to any act of aggression against any country, saying, “We did not seek war and did not initiate it ... and if a war does occur, measures must be taken to prevent it from becoming prolonged."

“We defeated the enemy in the war, and since then, the Armed Forces have been increasing their preparedness and defensive deterrence to manage any further war if it occurs,” he emphasized.

The IRGC spokesman also pointed to the enemies’ war of information and said just as they claim to have air superiority, Iran also has advantages in missile attacks and in the cyber field.

“We have countered more than 400 to 500 cyberattacks and have also carried out cyber operations ourselves,” he said, adding that many of them cannot be publicly disclosed.

Iran to develop advanced stealth missiles to counter Israeli systems: IRGC chief

The IRGC commander-in-chief says Iran must equip its missiles with stealth technology to counter Israel’s defense shield.

At the beginning of the war, the Israeli regime launched multiple coordinated cyberattacks targeting Iran’s banking network and state television.

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories, including the regime’s cyber capital, Beer al-Sabe, considered to be the stronghold of the Israeli regime’s cyber industry and a central hub in its global cyber warfare apparatus.

Also on Sunday, the IRGC commander-in-chief, Major General Mohammad Pakpour, said Israel and the United States thought that if Iran’s command system would collapse through the assassination of senior commanders, it would inevitably lead to a breakdown in operational fields. “But it was a major miscalculation,” he said.

He stressed the importance of equipping Iran’s missiles with stealth technology to enhance their ability to penetrate Israel’s anti-missile system.

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