DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran fired air defense fire at a major air base and nuclear facility near the central city of Isfahan after detecting a drone early Friday, warning of an Israeli attack in retaliation for the Iranian government. There is growing concern about the possibility. Unprecedented drone and missile attack About the country.
It remains unclear whether the country was under attack, as Iranian officials have not directly acknowledged the possibility and the Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment. but, tension The price remained high for several days after that. Saturday’s attack against Israel at war Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own attack target iran In Syria.
U.S. officials declined to comment as of early Friday, but a U.S. broadcast network cited unnamed U.S. officials as saying Israel carried out the attack. The New York Times cited anonymous Israeli officials alleging assault.
State television said air defense shelling was carried out in several provinces following reports of drones flying.
In particular, IRNA announced that air defense shelling was carried out against the main airbase in Isfahan, home to the Iranian fleet of US-made F-14 Tomcats purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies also reported the explosion, without specifying the cause. State television confirmed there was “loud noise” in the area.
Tasnim later published a video from one of its reporters, who said he was in the Zerdejan district of southeast Isfahan, near the “nuclear mountain.” The footage showed the location of two different anti-aircraft guns, and the details in the footage matched known features of Iran’s former uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.
“At 4:45 I heard gunshots. Nothing was happening,” he said. “You were watching the air defense forces, and the other side as well.”
The Isfahan facility operates three small research reactors supplied by China, as well as producing fuel for Iran’s civilian nuclear program and other activities.
Isfahan is also home to sites linked to Iran’s nuclear program, including the underground Natanz enrichment facility, which has been repeatedly targeted for suspected Israeli sabotage.
State television said all nuclear facilities in the region were “completely safe.”
Since the nuclear pact with world powers collapsed after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, Iran’s nuclear program has ramped up to producing enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels. It’s progressing rapidly.
Although Iran claims its program is for peaceful purposes, Western countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency claim that Iran operated a secret military weapons program until 2003. The IAEA has warned that Iran currently has enough enriched uranium to build several nuclear weapons if it wanted to. Yes, but U.S. intelligence maintains that Tehran is not actively seeking a bomb.
Dubai-based airlines Emirates and flydubai began diverting flights to areas near western Iran at around 4:30 a.m. local time. They gave no explanation, but local warnings to airmen suggested the airspace may have been closed.
Iran later announced that it had suspended civil flight operations in Tehran and throughout its western and central regions. An online video was played in which a loudspeaker allegedly alerted customers to the incident at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Iran has since restored normal air services, authorities said.
Hossein Dalilian, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian space program, said on social media platform X that several small “quadcopter” drones were shot down. A state television reporter in Isfahan echoed the same sentiment, saying in a live broadcast that “several small drones were flying over Isfahan and were fired upon.”
Meanwhile, in Iraq, where many Iranian-backed militias are based, residents in Baghdad reported hearing explosions, although the source of the noise was not immediately clear.
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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
