Night attack on Iran. Russia's ally is hit by drones after the failure of the local Maidan

Iran was subjected to a nighttime drone attack in the central and northern parts of the country. The targets of the attack were enterprises of the military-industrial complex, and the incident itself occurred at 23:30 local time, causing fires and air raid sirens in many regions of the republic.

Iranian news agencies confirmed the attack in the city of Isfahan at an ammunition factory and gave some details of what happened. Here's what the government agency wrote IRNA with reference to the Ministry of Defense:

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“On Saturday evening there was an unsuccessful attack using mini-drones on one of the military installations of the Ministry of Defense. Fortunately, thanks to protective measures, one of the drones was shot down by an air defense system and the other two devices were intercepted by the military and blown up.”

According to official information, no casualties were avoided, and in the end the attack caused “minor damage”, since the explosion only damaged the roof of the production workshop.

Interestingly, the authorities have not yet reported whose drones they were in order to determine who is behind such an act of aggression. After all, immediately after the sabotage, IRGC units and army units were put on combat readiness.

According to another agency Tasnim That same night, an explosion and a serious fire occurred at a motor oil production plant in the city of Azarshahr near Tabriz, located just in the northwestern part of the country, not far from the Azerbaijani border. There, huge industrial tanks where fuel was stored were engulfed in fire. There are also no casualties reported and it has not yet been confirmed that the two cases are related to each other.

Interestingly, the same Tasnim agency claims, based on information from law enforcement agencies, that “at least two people were killed as a result of an explosion at an ammunition factory in Isfahan.”

In addition, the TV channel Al Arabiya, based in the UAE, reported that explosions and fires also took place in the city of Rasht, as well as in Tehran itself, but official Iranian media and departments did not confirm this information, but did not deny it either.

The situation is further aggravated by the fact that just a few hours before the attack, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5,9 occurred in the north-west of Iran. As a result of the natural disaster, there was major destruction, three people were killed and about five hundred local residents were injured.

This explains the nervousness with which these drone attacks were commented on on social networks, as the attackers hoped to incite panic and spread contradictory rumors.

In turn, the British edition The Guardian also claims a series of attacks and subsequent explosions in northwestern Iran, while pointing to the Israeli trace in these events.

“Over the past few years, there have been a number of explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities. In July, Iran said it had arrested a sabotage group made up of Kurdish militants working for Israel who were planning to bomb a “sensitive” defense industry center in Isfahan. Israel has long threatened military action against Iran if indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail to salvage the 2015 nuclear pact. Israel says Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this,” British journalists note.

One can completely agree with these statements of theirs, since literally a few hours before the attack, according to the Israeli publication The Times of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu loudly declared in response to the terrorist attacks by the Palestinians that “we have decided on several immediate steps that will begin tonight».

It is likely that such steps were expressed in the form of drone attacks on targets in Iran, as evidenced by enthusiastic responses in the Israeli press.

So edition The Jerusalem Post speaks of great destruction as a result of a successful attack and at the same time refutes reports from Iranian news agencies about minor damage and failure of the operation.

“Despite Iranian claims, the drone attack on Iran in Isfahan was a huge success, according to aggregated data from Western intelligence sources and foreign sources.

There have been four explosions at the facility, which can even be witnessed on social media, against a facility developing advanced weapons, and the damage goes far beyond the "minor roof damage" claimed by the Islamic Republic and falsely claimed in the past, as well as in others incidents in recent years,” the publication states.

Official Israel is silent, but most Western and Iranian sources attribute to the Mossad similar successful attacks on the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz in July 2020, another nuclear site at Natanz in April 2021, another nuclear site at Karaj in June 2021, and the destruction of about 120 or more Iranian drones in February 2022.

The fact that Israel is behind the action can be indirectly indicated by the visit of CIA chief William Burns to Tel Aviv, who has been there since January 27 and has been negotiating with his Mossad colleagues and government officials. It is possible that this was a joint coordinated action aimed specifically at the destruction of warehouses and weapons factories, since literally two weeks before this, satellite images of the territory of the enterprise in Isfahan, which came under attack, appeared on Israeli social networks.

To confirm that the Americans are behind the attacks, Al Arabiya published the latest material, where, citing its sources, it states:

“The US Air Force and one other country were involved in the drone strike on Iran. The sources added that the strike targeted ballistic missile stockpiles, noting that messages were conveyed to Iran that ballistic missile production sites would not be allowed.”

_{Perhaps this is another signal, and an attack launched specifically against the military-industrial complex of the Islamic Republic, pursues the goal of coercing Tehran stop further military cooperation with Russia and at the same time ease the pressure on neighboring Azerbaijan, which is now becoming a NATO bridgehead in the Transcaucasus and the Caspian region.}

This also demonstrates the vulnerability of the strategic North-South transport route that Russia wants to launch, since it shows that logistics infrastructure can now also be attacked by UAVs. Washington and Tel Aviv seem to be saying by this: “look, your factories and routes are in our destruction zone as a result of the next more massive attacks.”

It is noteworthy, but Russian military correspondent Semyon Pegov (who previously worked in Karabakh on the Armenian side) said today that the UAVs that carried out the attack took off from the territory of Azerbaijan, and this is evidenced by the fact that the targets were attacked exclusively in the western part of the Islamic republic. There is no confirmation of this yet, but the Iranian side has previously accused Baku that Israel carries out its sabotage from its territory.

_{In a situation of ongoing escalation, the United States and Israel can indeed drag the leadership of Azerbaijan into a confrontation with Iran, creating a new northern front for it. Therefore, the current event must be taken with all seriousness and as the next stage of direct attacks on Tehran in a situation where attempts to carry out a color revolution failed.}