Drones bombed an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, the government said Sunday morning, causing damage to the plant amid rising regional and foreign tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Defense Ministry has not provided any details on who it suspects carried out the attack, which occurred when a fire broke out at a refinery in the northwest of the country and a magnitude 5. 9 earthquake hit nearby, killing 3 people.
However, Tehran has been the target of alleged Israeli drone moves amid a shadow war with its rival in the Middle East when its nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that country’s embassy in Tehran. , killing their security leader and wounding two others.
Details of the Isfahan attack, which occurred around 11:30 p. m. By Saturday, they remained scarce. A Ministry of Defense described 3 drones introduced into the facility, two of which were effectively shot down. A third party is said to have been controlled to ram the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and without injuring anyone, the ministry said.
The English-language branch of Iran’s state television, Press TV, aired a phone video that appeared at the moment a drone struck along the busy Imam Khomeini highway heading northwest from Isfahan, one of many tactics drivers use to reach the holy city of Qom and Tehran. A small crowd gathered, attracted by anti-aircraft fire, watching an explosion and sparks fall on a dark building.
“Oh my God! It’s a drone, isn’t it?” shouts the guy filming. “Yes, it’s a drone. “
Those who were there fled after the strike.
These photographs of the strike, along with photographs of the aftermath analyzed by the Associated Press, were from one on Minao Street, northwest of Isfahan, near a grocery mall that included a carpet and electronics store.
Iran’s nuclear and defense sites are surrounded by commercial homes and residential neighborhoods as the country’s cities expand more and more outward. Some posts also remain incredibly opaque about what they produce, with only a sign bearing the logo of the Ministry of Defense or the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards.
The Defense Ministry just called it a “workshop,” without specifying what it did. Isfahan, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran, is home to a giant airbase built for its fleet of American-made F-14 fighters. Jets and its Center for Studies and Production of Nuclear Fuel.
The attack comes after Iran’s Intelligence Ministry claimed in July to have dismantled a plot to attack sensitive sites around Isfahan. A segment broadcast on Iranian state television in October included alleged confessions from alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party exiled from Iran and now living in Iraq, who planned to attack an army aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained through Israel’s Mossad investigative service.
Activists say Iranian state television has broadcast many forced confessions over the past decade. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.
Separately, Iranian state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in a commercial domain near the northwestern city of Tabriz. He said the cause is not yet known, as he showed images of firefighters seeking to extinguish the blaze. Tabriz lies about 520 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Tehran.
State TV also said the magnitude 5. 9 quake killed another 3 people and injured 816 others in rural areas of West Azerbaijan province, damaging buildings in many villages.
Iran’s theocratic government faces demanding situations both at home and abroad, as its nuclear program enriches uranium closer than ever since the fall of its atomic deal with world powers.
Nationwide protests have rocked the country since the September death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurd detained by the country’s morality police. Its currency, the rial, fell to new lows against the U. S. dollar. Meanwhile, Iran continues to arm Russia with the bomb-carrying drone that Moscow uses in attacks in Ukraine against power plants and civilian targets.
Israel is suspected of launching a series of attacks on Iran, adding an attack in April 2021 on its underground nuclear facility at Natanz that broke its centrifuges. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a complicated attack that killed its army nuclear scientist.
Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out through the country’s covert army or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently returned to the post of minister, has long seen Iran as the biggest risk facing his country. USA. The U. S. and Israel have also just conducted their largest military training amid tensions with Iran.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Iran, as Azerbaijan and Armenia dispute the Nagorno-Karabakh region. .
Iran introduced army training near the border with Azerbaijan in October. Azerbaijan also has close ties with Israel, angering Iranian hardliners and buying Israeli-made drones for its army.
Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned online that the Isfahan attack represented yet another occasion in the “dangerous escalation the region is witnessing. “.
This “is in the interest of the region and its future,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. “Although the region’s disorders are complex, there is no other option but to dialogue. “