Quadcopter Suicide Drones Used In Attack On Iran Military Target - NYT
Suicide drones were used to target an Iranian military research facility on Wednesday, the New York Times reported Friday, citing three Iranian sources and a US official.
Suicide drones were used to target an Iranian military research facility on Wednesday, the New York Times reported Friday, citing three Iranian sources and a US official.
The NYT says its sources believe quadcopter suicide drones were used in the attack. Given the relatively smaller size of these drones it is not clear if they were launched from inside Iran or a forward base near its borders.
Iranian media on Thursday had reported a fire in Parchin military complex, near the capital Tehran, saying that a young engineer was killed at a defense ministry center developing nuclear, missile and drome technologies.
Although no one has taken responsibility, Israel is strongly suspected of conducting multiple sabotage attacks, and possibly drone strikes, against targets in Iran, and even the assassination of its top nuclear operative in November 2020.
Israeli media attributed one particular striketo an Israeli aerial attack, which reportedly destroyed hundreds of drones at an airbase belonging to the Revolutionary Guard in the Iranian province of Kermanshah in February.
Iran has made notable advances in the past few years in producing effective drones that have been widely used by its proxies throughout the region against Saudi Arabia, in Iraq and against a US base in Syria.
Just three days before this attack, an Iranian Qods (Quds) Force colonel was killed outside his home in Tehran by two gunmen on motorcycle. He was reportedly involved in clandestine terror operations against Israel, which has apparently told the United States it was responsible for the killing.
Residents of Khorramshahr and Behbahan, two other cities in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, took to the streets Thursday night, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic.
The people of Shahinshahr in the central Esfahan province and Bandar Abbas in the southern province of Hormozgan also held protest rallies to show their solidarity with the people of Abadan, whose mourning ceremonies for the victims of the collapsed ten-story Metropol twin towers have turned into anti-government protests since Wednesday.
During the Thursday night protests in Abadan, people chanted slogans against the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself, saying “Khamenei is a murderer; his rule is illegitimate” despite the deployment of anti-riot police.
Iranians see the Metropol incident, with 24 people dead so far, the result of powerful insiders not abiding by laws and regulation and violating building codes, and accuse the authorities of letting Metropol owner flee Iran.
The government says the owner died in the collapse, but protesters say authorities are lying and the well-connected man has fled.
People in Khuzestan, Esfahan and Tehran are reporting serious disruption in their access to the internet amid ongoing protests to prevent uploading images of protests to social media.
Iran witnessed days of protests in May when the government raised food prices, with the overall political situation remaining tense.
