“This unsuccessful attack occurred around 23:30 on the night of January 29, however because of the preventative measures and actions taken by the air defenses the attack by the macro drones was repelled,” the ministry said in a statement published in the early hours of Sunday by state news agency IRNA.
The attack was immediately blamed on Israel by Iranian opposition social media as a retaliation for several attacks inside Israel in which a number of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) media outlets implied were committed by the Resistance Axis - funded by the IRGC.
The IRGC was branded a terrorist organization by the European Parliament last week.
Iran and Israel have been involved in a shadow war for years. Iran blames Israel and its intelligence service Mossad for the assassination of its nuclear scientists and IRGC commanders.
Iran’s Intelligence ministry claimed recently that six Mossad teams were intercepted in the past six weeks with at least two dozen people detained.
#Iran’s Defense Ministry, in a statement, said one of its workshop complexes had come under attack from a number of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs), but the complex’s air defenses successfully repelled the attack. https://t.co/h3i2RvKsNq pic.twitter.com/OlvKtCYXCO
— Abas Aslani (@AbasAslani) January 29, 2023
Iranian social media reported incidents in different cities including Tehran, Hamadan, and Isfahan as well as a fire in a cooking oil factory in the country’s northwest. The incident in Isfahan was reported just after midnight by IRGC Telegram channels stating that three explosions had been heard in the north of the city.
The Ministry of Defense statement said that one of the drones was intercepted by the air defense system in the area and two other stealth drones were caught in an air defense trap and blown up.
Iran has blamed Israel and several Western countries for being behind the protests in the country which began after Tehran’s morality police killed Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in detention in mid-September. At least 500 protestors and bystanders have been killed by the security forces during the demonstrations with thousands of people detained.
