Iranian military factory hit by drone attack

• The explosion occurred amid tensions with the West over Tehran’s nuclear activity.
• The explosion only resulted in minimal damage and no injuries.
• Two drones were trapped in defense traps and blew up, and one was shot down.

A military factory in the Iranian city of Isfahan was hit by a loud explosion overnight, which Tehran said was caused by an unidentified drone attack.

The explosion occurred amid tensions with the West over Tehran’s nuclear activity and the provision of weapons for Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as months of domestic anti-government protests. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The “cowardly” strike, according to Iran‘s foreign minister, was meant to sow “insecurity” within Iran. According to the Defence Ministry, the explosion only resulted in minimal damage and no injuries. Independent confirmation of the damage’s scope was not possible.

According to Hossein Amirabdollahian, such actions “will not impair our scientists’ will to advance in our peaceful nuclear work.”

The plant, which the official news agency described as an ammunition factory, was visible in an Iranian media video. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were also seen on camera outside the complex.

The Defence Ministry issued a statement that was broadcast on state TV that read, “A failed attack was carried out utilizing micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) on one of the ministry’s workshop facilities around 23:30 (2000 GMT) on Saturday night.”

It stated that two drones were trapped in defense traps and blew up, and one was shot down. It barely slightly harmed a workshop building’s roof. There weren’t any losses. According to the statement, the incident “has not damaged our installations and purpose, and such heedless actions will not have an impact on the continuation of the country’s progress.

Separately, IRNA reported an enormous fire early on Sunday at a motor oil business in an industrial area close to the city of Tabriz in the northwest. It made no mention of the cause of the fire.

The Islamic Republic has in the past charged its longtime rival Israel with plotting strikes within Iranian territory via operatives. Tehran announced in July that it had detained a group of Kurdish terrorists working for Israel who was planning to blow up a “sensitive” defence industry facility in Isfahan.

When asked if Israel had any involvement in the most recent incident, a military spokesperson for Israel declined to answer. Israel has a habit of not commenting on specific occurrences but has long warned that it could attack Iran if negotiations fail to stop Tehran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

An important assistant to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy connected the incident to the conflict in Ukraine, which accuses Iran of giving Russia hundreds of drones to attack civilian targets in Ukrainian cities far from the front.

“War logic is murderous and inexorable. It strictly bills the writers and collaborators, Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. “Iranian oil refineries, drone and missile factories, and an explosive night. You were warned.” Isfahan Province is home to a number of Iranian nuclear facilities, including Natanz, the focal point of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which Israel is said to have sabotaged in 2021. In recent years, there have been several explosions and fires near Iranian industrial, nuclear, and military sites.

Since September, negotiations to resurrect the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 have stalled. Tehran consented to restrict its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions under the agreement, which Washington abandoned in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.

Iran has admitted to delivering drones to Russia but claims that the delivery took place before Moscow’s assault on Ukraine in 2016. Despite the fact that many Iranian drones have been downed and recovered in Ukraine, Moscow insists its forces do not utilize them.

In recent months, Iran’s clerical leaders have also seen internal unrest, with a crackdown on large-scale anti-establishment protests sparked by the death in detention of a woman arrested for allegedly defying the country’s stringent Islamic dress code.