78 killed, over 320 injured in Israeli attacks: Iranian envoy tells UNSC

At the UN Security Council, Iran's envoy said Israel's "barbaric" attack targeted military officials and nuclear scientists, but most victims were civilians, including women and children

Iran's UN ambassador said on Friday that 78 people have been killed and over 320 injured in Israeli attacks.

Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Israel's "barbaric and criminal attack" and assassinations were against senior military officials and nuclear scientists. But he said "the overwhelming majority" of victims were civilians, women and children.

He said Israel again on Friday is conducting "acts of aggression" targeting multiple civilian and military sites across several Iranian cities.

Israel launched blistering attacks on the heart of Iran's nuclear and military structure on Friday, deploying warplanes and drones previously smuggled into the country to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists -- a barrage it said was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon.

Iran retaliated late on Friday by unleashing scores of ballistic missiles on Israel, where explosions flared in the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below.

"We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a recorded message in which he vowed revenge.

An Associated Press reporter saw smoke rising in Tel Aviv after an apparent missile strike. A Tel Aviv-area hospital said it was treating 15 injured civilians. US ground-based air-defence systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.

Israel's ongoing airstrikes and intelligence operation and Iran's retaliation raised concerns about an all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.