Israel launches long-awaited counterstrike on Iran

Israel launched its long-awaited retaliatory strikes on Iran early Saturday local time, the Israeli military said. Israel had vowed payback for Iran's Oct. 1 attack, during which the Islamic republic launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. 

In a statement, Israel Defense Forces said that "in response to months of continuous attacks" from Iran, it conducted "precise strikes on military targets in Iran."

Sean Savett, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told CBS News in a statement that "we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st."