Iran: Drones attack military plant in Isfahan, Tehran says

CNN
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Drones attacked a military plant in IranThe central city of Isfahan, Tehran said on Sunday.

“An explosion has occurred in one of the military centers linked to the Ministry of Defense,” Isfahan provincial deputy security chief Mohammad Reza Jan-Nesari told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Jan-Nessari said the explosion left some damage “but fortunately there were no casualties.”

State news agency IRNA later said the explosion was caused by “small drones”.

“There was a failed attack by small drones against an industrial complex of the Ministry of Defense and fortunately with forecasts and air defense measures already in place, one of them (struck),” IRNA said in a post on Twitter, citing the country’s defense ministry.

“The complex’s air defense system was able to destroy two other drones. Fortunately, no one was killed in this botched attack and minor damage was done to the roof of the compound.

The ministry said the attack took place at 10:30 p.m. local time.

The plant is about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Tehran.

Several explosions and suspicious fires have erupted around Iranian military and nuclear facilities in the past few years.

In July 2020, a A fire broke out at Iran’s Natanz nuclear complex, a site that is key to the country’s uranium enrichment program, in Isfahan province, south of the capital Tehran. Iranian authorities have decided not to make public the findings about the cause of the fire security considerationsaccording to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The following year, a power outage in Natanz on the anniversary of National Nuclear Day, with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) calling it a “terrorist act”. Israel’s army chief appeared to hint at possible Israeli involvement in the incident.

In October 2019, an oil tanker belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was hit and damaged by two missiles. A spokesman for the National Iranian Tanker Company initially suggested it might have been fired from Saudi soil, but this was later dismissed and the Iranian government did not provide an alternative conclusion.

Earlier that year, a truck loaded with explosives blew up and hit a bus carrying members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, killing at least 23 and wounding 17. A separatist group called Jaish al-Adl, or Army of Justice, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.