Israel's unprecedented strikes on its archfoe Iran Friday are a resounding blow for Tehran that has thrown into doubt its ability to respond militarily, analysts said.

Israel said it hit 100 targets including Iranian nuclear and military sites in the attack.

The airstrikes killed senior figures, among them leaders of the Revolutionary Guards, the armed forces' chief and top nuclear scientists.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Israel of a "bitter and painful" fate over the attacks.

But analysts say the Islamic republic's options are limited, after Israel showed itself capable of precisely locating and taking out high-ranking Iranian officials.

"This is an intelligence defeat of existential proportions for the Islamic Republic," said Ali Fathollah-Nejad, director of the Berlin-based Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG) think tank.

"It exposes the vital vulnerability of the regime's military and security apparatus and its key infrastructures -- including nuclear -- as well as its top political and military leadership," he told AFP.

"All this is meant, inter alia, to cripple Tehran's command and counter-strike capacities."

The United States and other Western countries, along with........

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