CNN
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US officers consider drone assaults at a navy plant in Iran’s central metropolis of Isfahan had been carried out by Israel, in line with US media stories.
Tehran mentioned on Sunday that drones had attacked the plant in Isfahan late the earlier night, calling the operation “unsuccessful.”
The Wall Avenue Journal and the New York Instances reported that Israel was behind the assaults, citing US officers and other people accustomed to the operation. The New York Instances cited senior intelligence officers who had been accustomed to the dialogue between Israel and the US in regards to the incident. Not one of the officers had been named.
CNN has not independently confirmed that info. A US Division of Protection spokesperson instructed CNN that the US has not performed strikes or operations inside Iran.
“We’ve seen the press stories, however can verify that no US navy forces have performed strikes or operations inside Iran. We proceed to watch the state of affairs, however don’t have anything additional to supply,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Iran’s Protection Ministry has not publicly supplied any details about who carried out the assault. The Israel Protection Forces declined remark.
“An explosion has occurred in one of many navy facilities affiliated to the Ministry of Protection,” the deputy head of safety for Isfahan governorate Mohammad Reza Jan-Nesari earlier instructed the semi-official Fars Information Company.
Jan-Nesari mentioned the explosion had left some harm, “however thankfully there have been no casualties.”
The state information company IRNA later mentioned the explosion had been brought on by “small drones.”
“There was an unsuccessful assault by small drones in opposition to a protection ministry industrial complicated and thankfully with predictions and air protection preparations already in place, one in all them (struck),” IRNA mentioned in a put up on Twitter, citing the nation’s protection ministry.
“The air protection system of the complicated was in a position to destroy two different drones. Happily, this unsuccessful assault killed nobody and minor harm was sustained to the roof of the complicated.”
The ministry mentioned the assault happened at 10:30 p.m. native time Saturday. The plant is about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Tehran.
Previously few years, a number of explosions and suspicious fires have occurred round Iranian navy and nuclear services.
In July 2020, a fireplace tore by way of the Iranian Natanz nuclear complicated, a web site that has been key to the nation’s uranium enrichment program, in Isfahan Province, south of the capital Tehran. Iranian authorities determined to not publicly announce the findings on what brought on the hearth as a result of safety issues, in line with Iran’s Supreme Nation Safety Council.
The next yr, a blackout occured in Natanz on the anniversary of Nationwide Nuclear Day, with Iran’s Atomic Power Group (AEOI) calling it a “terrorist motion.” Israel’s military chief appeared to trace at potential Israeli involvement within the incident.
In October 2019, an oil tanker belonging to the Nationwide Iranian Oil Firm (NIOC) was hit and broken by two missiles. A spokesperson for the Nationwide Iranian Tanker Firm initially prompt it may have been fired from Saudi soil, however that was later dismissed and the Iran authorities didn’t present an alternate conclusion.
Earlier that yr, a truck loaded with explosives detonated and struck a bus carrying members of the Iranian navy’s elite Revolutionary Guard within the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, killing at the least 23 and wounding 17. A separatist group known as Jaish al-Adl, or Military of Justice, claimed accountability for the suicide assault.