SpaceX rocket explodes into giant fireball, but no injuries reported
A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas exploded Wednesday night, sending a dramatic fireball high into the sky.
The company said the Starship 'experienced a major anomaly' at about 11 pm local time while on the test stand preparing for the tenth flight test at Starbase, SpaceX's launch site at the southern tip of Texas.
'A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,' SpaceX said in a statement on the social platform X.
Elon Musk's company SpaceX said there were no hazards to nearby communities. It asked people not to try to approach the site.
The company said it is working with local officials to respond to the explosion.
Israel stunned and hobbled Iran last week when it pulled off an intelligence and military operation years in the making that struck high-level targets with precision.
Guided by spies and artificial intelligence (AI), the Israeli military unleashed a nighttime fusillade of warplanes and armed drones that it smuggled into Iran to quickly incapacitate many of its air defences and missile systems.
With greater freedom to fly over Iran, Israel bombarded key nuclear sites and killed top generals and scientists. By the time Iran mustered a response hours later, its ability to retaliate — already weakened by past Israeli strikes — was greatly diminished.
This account is based on conversations with 10 current and former Israeli intelligence and military officials, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss clandestine operations.
It was not possible to independently verify some of their claims. But the former head of research at Israel's spy agency, the Mossad, confirmed the basic contours of the attack, saying she had inside knowledge of how it was planned and executed.
'This attack is the culmination of years of work by the Mossad to target Iran's nuclear programme,' said Sima Shine, the former Mossad research director who is now an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Israel's element of surprise was enhanced by Iranian officials' apparent assumption that Israel wouldn't attack while talks over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme were ongoing with the United States.
A sixth round of talks had been planned for last Sunday in Oman, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu activated 'Operation Rising Lion' on Friday – after his country first notified US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu has for years said neutralising Iran's nuclear programme was vital for Israel's security, and Israel had previously taken steps to set back Iran's ability to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
But Netanyahu said a more aggressive attack proved necessary, as Iran kept advancing its enrichment programme despite US diplomatic efforts and warnings from UN watchdogs.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. Iran's political leaders say their nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, though it was the only country without the bomb to enrich uranium close to weapons-grade levels.
The Mossad and the military worked together for at least three years to lay the operational groundwork, according to a former intelligence officer who said he had knowledge of the attack. This person spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the subject.
The attack built on knowledge Israel gained during a wave of airstrikes last October, which 'highlighted the weakness of Iranian air defences,' said Naysan Rafati, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.
To further diminish Iranian air defences and missile systems at the start of last week's attack, Mossad agents had smuggled precision weapons into Iran that were prepositioned to strike from close range, according to two current security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the missions.
Those weapons included small, armed drones, which agents snuck into the country in vehicles, according to the former intelligence officer.
Mossad agents stationed weapons close to Iranian surface-to-air missile sites, Shine said. The agency works with a mix of people, both locals and Israelis, she said.
To analyse information it gathered, Israel used the latest AI, said an intelligence officer involved with selecting individuals and sites to target. He said AI was used to help Israelis quickly sift through troves of data they had obtained.
That effort began last October, according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. It was one month before Netanyahu said he had ordered the attack plans.
An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year uncovered that the Israeli military uses US-made AI models in war to sift through intelligence and intercept communications to learn the movements of its enemies. It's been used in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The intelligence officer involved in identifying potential targets said that options were first grouped into various categories, including leadership, military, civilian and infrastructure. Targets were chosen if they were determined to be a threat to Israel, such as being deeply associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard — a paramilitary force that controls Iran's ballistic missiles.
The officer was tasked with putting together a list of Iranian generals, including details on where they worked and spent their free time.
Among the high-level military officials killed since Friday's attack were General Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and General Mohammed Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.
In addition to AI, the Mossad relied on spies to identify top nuclear scientists and members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, according to one security official. At least eight members of the Guard, including the head of its missile programme, were killed in a single Israeli strike on an underground bunker.
Another facet of the attack was to strike Iranian vehicles used to transport and launch missiles.
Shine said the strategy was similar to a Ukrainian operation earlier this month in Russia. In that operation, nearly a third of Moscow's strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged with cheaply made drones sneaked into Russian territory, according to Ukrainian officials.
In an interview with Iranian state-run television, the country's police chief, General Ahmadreza Radan, said 'several vehicles carrying mini-drones and some tactical drones have been discovered.'
He added: 'a number of traitors are trying to engage the country's air defence by flying some mini-drones.'
The Mossad is believed to have carried out numerous covert attacks on the Iranian nuclear programme over the years, including cyberattacks and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists. But it rarely acknowledges such operations.
In the 2000s, Iranian centrifuges used for enriching uranium were destroyed by the so-called Stuxnet computer virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation.
In 2018, Israel stole an archive of Iranian nuclear research that included tens of thousands of pages of records, said Yossi Kuperwasser, a retired general and former military intelligence researcher who now directs the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
In July 2024, Israel killed a senior leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, with a bomb in a bedroom of a government guesthouse in Tehran.
Israel's blistering attack last week on the heart of Iran's nuclear and military structure didn't come out of nowhere, said retired Israeli Brigadier General Amir Avivi, who heads the Israel Defence and Security Forum think tank.
It was the result of 'Israeli intelligence working extensively for years in Iran and establishing a very strong robust presence,' he said.
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