New York Times Report: Attack on Iranian Military Facility was Carried Out by a Drone
Officials say Parchin military technology complex was hit by a drone and resembled past attacks attributed to Israel.
By: Elad Benari
The explosion that occurred this week at a structure in the Parchin military technology complex in Iran was hit by a drone, The New York Times reported on Friday.
Three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and a US official told the newspaper that the drone strike targeted a highly sensitive military site.
The strike on Wednesday evening hit the site of the Parchin military complex, located about 37 miles southeast of the capital, with quadcopter suicide drones, according to the Iranian sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The drones exploded into a building used by the Ministry of Defense for research on drone development, killing a young engineer who worked at the ministry and injuring another person, they said.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, The New York Times said that the attack fit a pattern of past strikes on Iran and Lebanon attributed to Israel.
Israeli officials refused to comment. A US official confirmed that suicide drones had attacked Parchin but did not say who was behind it or offer any further details.
The drone attack was launched from inside Iran, not far from the Parchin military base, according to the Iranian sources with knowledge of the attack. Quadcopter drones have a short flight range, and Parchin is a long way from Iran’s borders.
A statement by Iran’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday used the word “incident” instead of “accident” to describe what happened at Parchin and called the engineer who died a “martyr,” a clear indication that his death was viewed as a result of an enemy action. The statement said one of the research units of the Defense Ministry in the Parchin area was hit.
In June 2020, an explosion occurred at the Parchin military site, but it was not clear what caused it.
In 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that some countries were suspicious that Iran had experimented with developing nuclear weapons at Parchin.
Satellite footage from 2012 showed that Iran was carrying out clean-up activity at Parchin, where it was suspected Iran may have conducted high explosive compression related to the development of nuclear weapons.
Iran initially refused to allow IAEA inspectors access to Parchin, but IAEA inspectors eventually gained access to the site in 2015.
The Iranian army on Saturday provided some details – but not the exact location – of an underground base for its military drones, Reuters reported, citing Iranian state media.
According to the report, 100 drones were being kept in the heart of the Zagros mountains, including Ababil-5, which it said were fitted with Qaem-9 missiles, an Iranian-made version of air-to-surface US Hellfire.
“No doubt the drones of Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces are the region’s most powerful,” army commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi was quoted as having said. “Our capability to upgrade drones is unstoppable,” he added.
An Iranian state TV correspondent said he had made the 45-minute helicopter flight on Thursday from Kermanshah in western Iran to a secret underground drone site. He was allowed to take blindfolds off only upon arrival at the base, he said.
TV footage showed rows of drones fitted with missiles in a tunnel, which it said was several hundred meters underground.
Iran often boasts of its military accomplishments, though it is not always possible to say with certainty that it is telling the truth about those accomplishment
In 2017, the Islamic Republic claimed to have unveiled a domestically manufactured tank which “has the capability to fire missiles and precisely guide them.”
Previously, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed it had successfully tested a Hormuz 2-type ballistic missile.
Iran has also claimed it is in possession of the “father of all bombs”, described as a domestically-made 10-ton bomb with a high destructive power.
Earlier this year, the Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed that the country has drones with a range of 7,000 km (4,375 miles).
In October, the Iranian Air Defense unveiled an indigenous tactical radar it claimed is capable of calculating the velocity and distance of targets with high accuracy. (israelnationalnews.com)
