(CNSNews.com) – The Iranian regime on Sunday played down the scale of an unclaimed drone attack on a military installation in Isfahan, a central city that houses key missile, drone, nuclear, and other military-related facilities.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian dismissed the “cowardly” attack, saying the drones had been repelled by Iranian air defenses and adding that such actions would never impede Iranian defense experts’ activities and progress.
The defense ministry said in a statement that the attack on Saturday night had caused only minor damage to the roof of a “workshop,” and no casualties. It said one drone had been shot down and another two had been “caught in defense traps and blew up.”
The state news agency IRNA cited “informed sources” as describing the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as “advanced quadcopters equipped with bomblets.”
Video clips posted online did show one sizeable explosion, purportedly caused by one of the drones.
The regime has typically minimized the effectiveness of previous such strikes, while it sometimes later emerges that significant damage had indeed occurred.
“Iran’s cowardly enemies have again resorted to a dastardly act of terrorism against the Islamic Republic, and this time a crude attempt to target a defense factory in Isfahan,” commented Kayhan, a hardline newspaper close to the regime.
“Thanks to the vigilance of the guardians of the nation the aggressor drones were shot down before they could do any damage to the installations.”
The paper, whose editor is appointed by and serves as an advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the identity of the perpetrators of the attack was known to the authorities, “which means retaliation will be devastative.”
U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that Israel had carried out the strike, although the Israeli government, in keeping with long-held policy, has not commented on the claims.
The paper said the building targeted was a munitions factory, located alongside a facility belonging to the Iran Space Research Center. In 2019 the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the research center, saying it was linked to the regime’s intercontinental ballistic missile program.
“Whoever initiated it should be congratulated,” said Institute for National Security Studies managing director Tamir Hayman, a former head of Israel Defense Intelligence. “Any damage to Iran’s missile program, intensification or in the nuclear program – is welcome.”
Hayman described Isfahan as “a center of gravity of Iranian military industry, both for the nuclear issue (centrifuge production, and uranium conversion), and for the missile and UAV project.”
Iran’s growing combat drone program has become a matter of increasing concern in the West, since Russia is accused of using Iran-supplied explosive-laden UAVs to deadly effect in its war against Ukraine.
(Russia and Iran continue to deny the drone accusations, although Moscow is also blocking a U.N. visit to Ukraine to investigate the issue.)
Whether or not Iran’s drone program was a target of the weekend strike, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, Mykhailo Podoliak, tweeted “Explosive night in Iran,” adding that Ukraine “Did warn you.”
Podoliak linked to tweet last month in which he had highlighted Iran’s provision of weapons for Russian aggression against Ukraine, and called on the international community to exchange ineffectual sanctions and U.N. resolutions against Iran for “more destructive tools,” including “the destruction of factories.”
Tehran is also suspected to be working on developing hypersonic missile technology, with Russian help, a development that would significantly boost the threat Iranian missiles already pose to foes in the region, including Israel and U.S. forces stationed in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.
While slower than ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles are more maneuverable and therefore harder for missile defense systems to counter. To date only Russia and China are known to have the technology deployed.
Some Israeli media outlets speculated that the U.S. may also have been involved in the Isfahan operation, noting for example the recent major U.S.-Israeli military exercises which included long-range strike training.
“[C]arrying out such an attack immediately after these exercises could be meant to send a message as to their seriousness,” commented the Jerusalem Post.
As part of the Juniper Oak exercises, described by U.S. Central Command as the largest joint exercise with Israel in history, the U.S. and Israeli forces carried out long-range strikes, the suppression of enemy air defense, electronic attacks, and other operations.