Iran Says 'Small Drones' Attacked Its Military Site
Reports and videos from Iran speak of multiple explosions and a fire at an ammunition factory in the Iranian city of Esfahan shortly after midnight local time.
Reports and videos from Iran speak of multiple explosions and a fire at an ammunition factory in the Iranian city of Esfahan shortly after midnight local time.
Following multiple reports by eyewitnesses after midnight, January 29, that an ammunition factory in Esfahan was hit by explosions and fire, Iran's defense ministry announced that small drones attacked the complex, and called the attack “unsuccessful.” It claimed all the drones were shot down, without saying if the attack came from inside the country or from outside.
Small drones have a very short flying time and if these were used against the ammunition factory, they must have been launched from a close distance. That does not necessarily eliminate the possibility of a foreign country being behind the attack, but it would certainly prove some people in Iran carried it out.
"The explosion took place in one of the munitions manufacturing centers of the Defense Ministry and, according to an announcement by the deputy Esfahan governor for security, there were no casualties," IRIB reported.
However, eyewitnesses report and videos show the actual explosions at the factory. Some Twitter users say that the Esfahan factory was manufacturing warheads for the Shahed kamikaze drone that Iran is supplying Russia for attacks in Ukraine.
The official, Mohammad Reza Jannesar, later told state television: "The damages are being investigated as well as the causes and elements that caused this explosion and .. will be announced later."
According to some reports air defenses of Iran's traditional army and the IRGC have been put on high alert.
There were also reports on social media of explosions and smoke in northwest of the capital Tehran. These reports have not been verified.
Also, a large blaze engulfed an industrial area near the city of Tabriz, northwest Iran. The government said the fire started at a refinery producing motor oil, but the cause of the devastating blaze remains unclear.
A social media post by a group of protesters in the southwestern Khuzestan province reports an explosion in Dezful. Another report says there were air raid sirens in Hamedan’s Nozheh airbase, but these remained unverified, similar to reports from Tehran and elesewhere.
Updated at 08:00 GMT on January 29
The international human rights group said on Friday that the three protesters were tortured by “floggings, electric shocks, being hung upside down and death threats at gunpoint.”
Amnesty has also learned that Revolutionary Guard agents raped one of them and sexually tortured another by placing ice on his testicles for two days.
Arshia Takdastan, 18, Mehdi Mohammadifard, 19, and Javad Rouhi, 31, each received two death sentences in December 2022 for “war against God” and “corruption on earth”.
The court says the young men have “incited” arson by throwing headscarves into bonfires during protests in Noshahr, in northern Manzandaran province on September 21.
Javad Rouhi has received the third death sentence as he has confessed under duress that he burned a copy of the Quran during protests.
“The fact that Arshia Takdastan, Mehdi Mohammadifard and Javad Rouhi and their anguished relatives live under the shadow of execution while Revolutionary Guard agents and prosecution officials reasonably suspected of responsibility or complicity in their sexual abuse and other forms of torture enjoy absolute impunity highlights the sheer cruelty and inhumanity of Iran’s judicial system,” noted Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director.
“The Iranian authorities must immediately quash the convictions and death sentences of these young men and drop all charges related to their peaceful participation in protests,” she added.