Sensitive Iranian Military Site Was Targeted in Attack

NY Times – May 27th 2022

By Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman

A drone strike this week targeted a highly sensitive military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology, according to three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and to a U.S. official.

The strike on Wednesday evening hit the site of the Parchin military complex, 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.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack fit a pattern of past Israeli strikes on Iran and Lebanon in a covert campaign of hostility that has been going on for years. A statement from Iran’s Ministry of Defense indicated that it viewed this as an attack, not an accident.

Israeli officials refused to comment. A U.S. official confirmed that suicide drones had attacked Parchin but did not say who was behind it or offer any further details.

On Sunday, just a few days before the strike on Parchin, a colonel in the Revolutionary Guards was gunned down in Tehran, and Israel told the United States that it was behind his killing, according to one intelligence official. The Israelis intended it as a warning to Iran to stop targeting Israeli citizens abroad, the official said.

Israel and Iran are increasingly pushing the boundaries in their long-running clandestine war, and the targeting of a drone research facility at Parchin follows a pattern of Israel trying to counter Iran’s growing drone capabilities.

In recent years, Iran has steadily advanced in its design and production of drones and transfer of drone technology and parts to proxy militias across the Middle East. Iranian drones have been deployed in numerous attacks against Israel, as well as in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and, last October, a U.S. base in Syria, according to intelligence officials.

Israel considers the use of drones by its enemies, especially Iran, as a major threat to its security because drones can evade Israel’s advanced antimissile systems like the Iron Dome. A senior Israeli military official said the country was investing significant resources to locate and destroy enemy drones.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/world/middleeast/iran-drone-attack.html