‘Fake Iranian Media’: Israel Denies Iran’s Claim They Shot Down Two Warplanes As Missiles Drop on Tel Aviv

Iran claimed on Friday that it shot down two Israeli warplanes as missiles rained down on Israel in response to the country’s overnight airstrikes against Iranian military and nuclear sites. Israel quickly denied the claim as “baseless.”

Sirens went off on Friday, and footage captured missiles being intercepted in the sky above Tel Aviv. CNN’s Boris Sanchez reported “waves and waves” of missiles were being launched by Iran in retaliation for Israel striking multiple sites overnight.

Sanchez was joined on Friday by CNN military analyst Col. Cedric Leighton to examine the shocking footage out of Israel. At one point, Leighton was asked at one point about Iran’s claim that they’ve also taken down two Israeli jets, which CNN could not verify. As Leighton noted as well, Iran has a history of exaggerating news.

Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, told Israeli media that Iran’s claims were “baseless.”

“Fake Iranian media,” the colonel said. “This news being spread by Iranian media is completely baseless.”

“At least two Israeli warplanes, according to Iran’s official news agency, have been shot down in Iranian airspace. That’s what they’re claiming as of this evening here. CNN cannot verify the claim. We’ve reached out to the IDF for comment on that. What do you make of what you’re hearing there?” Brianna Keilar asked.

“So it’s certainly possible. We have seen exaggerated claims by the Iranians before, but sometimes they are accurate. And certainly if Israeli jets were shot down, that indicates that they did not achieve the type of air supremacy that they need in order to fly with impunity through the skies of Iran,” the colonel said. “So there’s some danger there. It appears as if they have not really knocked out everything that they need to knock out in order to achieve all of the goals of this operation.”

Watch above via CNN.