Israel attacks Iran, airstrikes kill Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami

Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran early Friday morning local time, targeting locations it said were related to Iran’s nuclear program.

The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], Hossein Salami, was killed in a targeted strike, Iranian media reported.

The Israeli airstrikes also targeted and killed two of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, according to Iranian news outlets.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, pledged to avenge the attacks. “With this crime, the Zionist regime has brought a bitter and painful fate upon itself, and it will certainly face it,” he said in a statement.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a state of emergency shortly after the strikes began, and warned people that “a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the nation, “This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”

All incoming and outgoing flights from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Iranian media outlets report multiple fatalities in the capital city, Tehran.

Beyond Tehran, Iranian news channel IRINN reports that there were airstrikes on the city of Natanz, which is home to a key nuclear facility. Also hit were targets in the city of Khandab, where a heavy water nuclear reactor is located, and Khoramabad, the site of a ballistic missile base.

Oil prices jumped more than 10% late Thursday amid fears of a broader regional war. U.S. stock futures fell for the same reason, with Dow futures down more than 700 points.

The United States did not participate in the military operation, but President Donald Trump was briefed on it beforehand.

“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense.”

The U.S. State Department in recent days has issued an increasingly ominous series of security alerts to Americans across the Middle East.

As Friday morning dawned in Jerusalem, the U.S. Embassy there directed all employees and their families to “shelter in place until further notice.”

In Washington, the president’s national security team assembled in the White House Situation Room Thursday to monitor the strikes, NBC News reports.

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show explosions in eastern Tehran. The sound of jets and anti-aircraft missiles can be heard in northern Tehran, NBC News reports.

Trump approved the withdraw of some American personnel from the Middle East earlier this week, noting the region “could be a dangerous place.”

Trump on Wednesday accused Tehran of “delaying” talks with U.S. envoys, saying he felt “less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago” that a deal could be reached to avoid Thursday’s escalation, he told the New York Post.

Tehran, meanwhile, has accused Washington of not being serious in its engagement and not respecting Iran’s right to enrich uranium for what it insists are peaceful purposes.

This is breaking news, Please check back for updates.

NBC News’ Courtney Kube, Tom Winter and Ken Dilanian contributed reporting.