Image from a video claiming to show the explosion at a military facility in Isfahan in central Iran, January 28, 2023

EA on France 24: Looking Beyond Israel’s Latest Attack on Iran

UPDATE, FEB 2:

In an official letter to the UN, Iran has blamed Israel for Saturday’s drone strikes on a military facility in Isfahan.

Tehran’s Ambasssador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, filed a complaint with the Security Council about the “terrorist attack”, saying Iran reserves its “legitimate and inherent right” to retaliate.

The letter descriped the military facility in central Iran as “a workshop complex of the Iranian Defence Ministry”.

Iravani said, “Israel knows very well that it will receive a response, as happened in the past.”

UPDATE, FEB 1:

Officials with the Supreme National Security Council have accused “dissident Kurdish groups”, guided by “foreign intelligence services”, of last Saturday’s drone strikes on the military facility in Isfahan in central Iran.

The accusations enables a further crackdown by security forces on Kurds in northwest Iran, who have been at the center of nationwide protests since mid-September.

UPDATE, JAN 30:

“Senior intelligence officials who were familiar with the dialogue between Israel and the United States” have reiterated that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad carried out Sunday’s drone attack on an Iranian military facility in Isfahan.

US officials informed media outlets on Sunday morning that Washington had no role in the attack.

Unnamed officials told journalist Barak Ravid on Sunday that Israel successfully targeted Iran’s missile production.

UPDATE 1751 GMT:

Israel carried out the drone strike on the Iranian military facility in Isfahan, say “US officials and people familiar with the operation”.

Three small quadcopters targeted the munitions factory next to a site belonging to the Iran Space Research Center, sanctioned by the US for its work on the Iranian ballistic-missile program.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Drones attacked a military facility in Isfahan in central Iran late Saturday.

Iranian news agencies reported a loud blast about 11:30 p.m., posting an image of a flash of light at the site. Emergency vehicles and fire trucks were shown at the scene.

The Defense Ministry said the attack was on a “workshop”, with further claims that it was an ammunition factory. Isfahan is also the home of a large airbase with a fleet of US-made F-14 fighter jets and of the Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center.

The Ministry declared that the drone attack was “unsuccessful”, claiming one drone was shot down by air defense and two blew up when they were “caught in defence traps”. It said there was “minor damage to the workshop’s roof”.

Isfahan Deputy Governor Mohammad Reza Jan-Nesari said there were “no casualties” and “the cause of the incident is under investigation”.

The State news agency IRNA also reported a fire at an oil refinery in Tabriz in northern Iran. It did not give the cause of the blaze or say if it was or was not related to the explosion in Isfahan.

The attack came as authorities were trying to cope with a 5.9-magnitude earthquake which killed at least three people and injured more than 800.

There have been a series of explosions at Iranian nuclear and military facilities in recent years, with Israel suspected of overseeing the attacks.

In April 2021, a blast at the underground Natanz nuclear facility damaged its uranium centrifuges. Iranian officials said the cause was sabotage by an employee working for the Israelis.

Two months later the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company was struck in Karaj, west of Tehran, as it was manufacturing centrifuges to replace those destroyed in Natanz.

Last May an engineer was killed and another employee wounded at the Parchin military and weapons development base east of Tehran. The Defense Ministry blamed an “accident”.

Six quadrocopter drones exploded at Kermanshah, Iran’s main manufacturing and storage plant for military drones.

Israel also assassinated Revolutionary Guards commander Sayad Khodayee, accused of heading a unit pursuing the the abduction and killing of Israelis and other foreigners around the world.

See also How Israeli Attacks Shook Up Iran’s Intelligence Services