‘More like toys’: Iran downplays drone attack near nuclear site
By Jasper Ward and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Washington/Cairo: Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran was investigating an attack on Iran that rattled the world and global markets on Friday, but downplayed the strike saying, so far, a link to Israel has not been proven.
Hossein Amirabdollahian told NBC News the drones took off from inside Iran and flew for a few hundred metres before being downed by the country’s air defences.
“They’re ... more like toys that our children play with, not drones,” Amirabdollahian said.
People walk past a mural showing Ayatollah Khomeini, right, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, while holding a poster of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iranian and Palestinian flags in an anti-Israeli march after Friday prayers in Tehran.Credit: AP
“It has not been proved to us that there is a connection between these and Israel,” he said, adding that Iran was investigating the matter but that media reports were not accurate, according to Tehran’s information.
Iranian media and officials described a few explosions, which they said resulted from air defences hitting three drones over Isfahan in central Iran in the early hours of Friday. They referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators” using small quadcopters, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.
But he warned that if Israel retaliated and acted against the interests of Iran, Tehran’s next response would be immediate and at “maximum level”.
“But if not, then we are done. We are concluded,” he said.
A passerby walks past a banner in Tehran showing missiles being launched from an Iranian map.Credit: AP
The attack appeared to target an Iranian Air Force base near the city of Isfahan, deep inside the country, but without striking any strategic sites or causing major damage.
The New York Times, however, reported it hit a crucial part of an Iranian air defence system used for tracking incoming targets.
Israel has said nothing about the incident. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had not been involved in any offensive operations, while the White House said it had no comment.
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran’s nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran, on April 4.Credit: AP
Meanwhile, a huge blast rocked a military base used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) to the south of Baghdad late on Friday (Saturday AEST), two PMF and two security sources told Reuters.
They said the blast was a result of an unknown airstrike which caused material damage but no casualties.
They targeted a headquarters of the PMF at the Kalso military base near the town of Iskandariya around 50 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The PMF started out as a grouping of armed factions, many close to Iran, that was later recognised as a formal security force by Iraqi authorities.
Factions within the forces took part in months of rocket and drone attacks on US forces in Iraq amid Israel’s Gaza campaign but ceased to do so in February.
Calibrated retaliation
Israel had said it would retaliate after a strike on April 13, the first ever direct attack on Israel by Iran, which caused no deaths after Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones.
Tehran launched those attacks in response to a presumed Israeli airstrike on April 1 that destroyed a building in Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.
Allies, including the US, had pressed all week to ensure any further retaliation would be calibrated not to provoke more escalation, and Western countries tightened sanctions on Iran to mollify Israel.
There was no word from Israel on Friday whether further action might be planned. Apart from direct strikes on Iranian territory, it has other ways of attacking, including cyberattacks and strikes on Iranian proxies elsewhere.
Violence between Israel and Iranian proxies across the Middle East has intensified throughout six months of bloodshed in Gaza, raising fears the longstanding foes’ shadow war could spiral into a direct conflict.
Israel’s assault on Gaza began after Hamas Islamists attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1200, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military offensive has killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.
Palestinians recover firewood and useful items from the building rubble in Al-Nuseirat camp, central Gaza Strip, on Thursday.Credit: Bloomberg
Israel ‘phones’ Gaza residents ahead of new strike
As night fell on Friday, Israeli planes and tanks pounded several areas across the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes hitting areas of Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering, according to residents, Hamas media and officials at the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
One strike hit two apartments in a residential building in the city, killing nine people, including four children, and wounding several others, health officials said.
Air strikes also destroyed at least five houses in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, residents and Hamas media said.
“They [Israeli security] phoned some residents and ordered them to evacuate their houses before planes bombed some buildings nearby,” Abu Omar, a resident of Al-Nuseirat, told Reuters via a chat app.
“Soon as we ran away explosions shook the ground,” he added.
Israel’s government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Reuters