Two Iranian missile brigades launch retaliatory attack on Israel

Two Iranian brigades suddenly appeared, launching missiles at Israel in a lightning counterattack shortly after Tehran's nuclear facility was attacked by the US.

On June 22, 2026, the US military finally launched a direct bombing raid on Iran. After US President Trump announced the use of B-2 bombers and cruise missiles to conduct airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, the Iranian Foreign Ministry responded by saying, "The US has launched a dangerous war against Iran."

At present, Iran and the United States have entered a real war phase, and the war between Israel and Iran is escalating into a war between the United States + Israel and Iran. However, Iran's first attack was not aimed at the United States, but continued to attack Israel. The US military's surprise airstrike forced Iran to increase its counterattack on Israel first, and the US counterattack had to be postponed.

By noon on June 22, Israel had issued an air defense warning that Iranian missiles were inbound. The targets were northern and central Israel, as well as Jerusalem and surrounding areas. The initial announcement was for 30 missiles, in two waves. Israel claimed that the missiles hit three cities, including Tel Aviv, Nesziona and Haifa.

Later, according to the Israel Defense Forces' reassessment, a total of 22 missiles were launched in the first wave and 5 missiles were launched in the second wave. This scale is equivalent to 2 missile brigades launching missiles at the target at the same time.

The Israeli Air Force later announced that it had "attacked Iranian soldiers preparing to launch missiles at Israel and quickly destroyed the launchers, which had launched missiles at Israel not long ago".

Because the Israeli Air Force claimed that they had “cleared” the missile launch sites in western Iran. However, these Iranian missile brigades were hidden in bunkers in the mountains. When the order to launch missiles was given, they quickly maneuvered into the unprepared battlefield area, directly attacking Israel in retaliation.

According to Iran's statement, this was the 20th airstrike in the "Real Commitment 3" campaign, which used long-range, solid-fueled and liquid-fueled missiles with stronger penetration capabilities and capable of carrying cluster munitions. Iran stated that the targets of this airstrike included Ben Gurion Airport, the Israel Biological Research Center, support bases, and IDF command and control centers at all levels.

A video aired by Iranian state television on the same day showed the launch of a Khorramshahr-4 ballistic missile, with a caption that said "the missile was used in the attack on Israel on June 22." According to IRNA, the missile is named after the Iranian city of Khorramshahr, which saw fierce fighting during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

The Khorramshahr-4 ballistic missile is a two-stage solid-fuel missile, the heaviest of Iran's operational missiles. With a range of 2,000 km, the warhead weighs 1.5 tons. It is also called "Iran's most destructive missile". This also fits the description of the attack announced by Iran.

In particular, the Khorramshahr-4 missile can carry a cluster warhead, providing greater lethality. As early as June 19, the Israeli Army confirmed that the missiles used by Iran to attack Tel Aviv were equipped with cluster warheads and there were images of cluster munitions captured on the battlefield.

It is noticeable that Iran's counterattacks against Israel have increased in scale. Previously, Iran would use several launch battalions as counterattack forces and began to focus on the quality of the counterattack, trying to break through Israel's missile defense system as much as possible. However, this time, Iran was clearly angry at the surprise airstrike by the US military, and turned "loss into action", with a wave of saturation attacks.

Based on the organization of the two brigades, this launch should have had at least 36 missiles, and the actual penetration efficiency would have been more than 50%. This is also one of the few times in recent times that Israel has had the largest number of missiles hit in the same attack, setting a new record.

However, the risk of deploying so many missile launchers is also very clear, as it has created an opportunity for the Israeli Air Force to destroy them. After identifying the missile launch site, the Israeli army summoned the air force on duty nearby to monitor and attack the Iranian missile launcher. It can be said that the loss of this Iranian counterattack will not be small.

Overall, Iran's first counterattack was somewhat hasty, increasing the number of missile launchers in its counterattack plan against Israel. Although it caused Israel to suffer relatively large losses, it also created targets for the Israeli Air Force. In addition, Iran's western air defense network has not yet been restored, so this loss was inevitable.

Iran’s counterattack on the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on the morning of June 23 was “symbolic” and only helped Iran raise the flag of anti-US and anti-hegemony in the Middle East. However, the counterattack did not cause any damage to the US military; let alone achieve results that could affect the war situation.

While Iran could choose to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route, most of these impacts would be short-term, hitting oil markets, pushing prices higher for a few days and causing inflation in some weak markets; the long-term impact on the US would be relatively limited.

It is worth noting that at 7:00 a.m. on June 24 (GMT), the ceasefire regime announced by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier took effect. Iran has not officially confirmed or denied its participation in the ceasefire.

So far, the ceasefire has been established, but how sustainable it will be remains an open question. What about Iran's combat preparations for the next phase, can it drag the Middle East into more chaos? (Photo source: IRNA, Al Jazeera, TASS)

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