CNN
—
U.S. officials believe Israel carried out a drone strike on a military factory in the Iranian capital of Isfahan, according to U.S. media reports.
Tehran said on Sunday that drones had attacked a factory in Isfahan late the night before and that the operation had “failed”.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Israel was behind the attack, citing US officials and people familiar with the operation. The New York Times cited a senior intelligence official familiar with dialogue between Israel and the United States on the incident.
CNN has not independently verified that information. A Pentagon spokesman told CNN that the United States had no attacks or operations inside Iran.
“We have seen reports and can confirm that US forces have not conducted any attacks or operations inside Iran. said the rep.
Iran’s Defense Ministry has not publicly provided information about who carried out the attack. The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.
“There has been an explosion at one of the military centers belonging to the Ministry of Defense,” said Mohammad Reza Jan Nesari, deputy security chief of Isfahan governorate. just a while ago told the semi-official Furs news agency.
Jan-Nesari said the blast caused some damage but “fortunately there were no casualties”.
State news agency IRNA later said the explosion was caused by a “small drone”.
“Attacks by small drones on the Defense Ministry’s industrial complex failed, but fortunately one of them (attacked), as predictions and air defenses were already in place,” IRNA said. Citing the ministry, it said in a post on Twitter.
“The complex’s air defense system was able to destroy two other drones. ”
The ministry said the attack occurred at 10:30 pm local time on Saturday. The power station is located approximately 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Tehran.
In recent years, there have been several explosions and suspicious fires near Iranian military and nuclear facilities.
In July 2020, a fire broke out at the Natanz nuclear facility, the linchpin of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, located in the province of Isfahan, south of Iran’s capital Tehran. Iranian authorities have decided not to publicly release the findings of their investigation into the cause of the fire. security concernsaccording to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
The following year, on the anniversary of National Nuclear Day, a power outage occurred in Natanz in what Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency (AEOI) called an “act of terror.” The Israeli military commander appeared to hint at possible Israeli involvement in the incident.
In October 2019, an oil tanker belonging to the state-owned Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was hit and damaged by two missiles. A spokesman for the Iranian National Tanker Company initially suggested the launch may have originated from Saudi soil, but that was later dismissed and the Iranian government did not come to a different conclusion.
Earlier that year, at least 23 people were killed and 17 injured when a truck loaded with explosives exploded and crashed into a bus carrying members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in the southeastern province of Sistan-Balchestan. bottom. The Justice Force claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
