Israeli Drone Strike Said to Be Broader Than Iran's Account

"An Israeli drone strike inside Iran hit an advanced weapons-production facility in an attack Israel believes achieved its goals, said people familiar with talks about the operation.

The operation early Sunday was executed by Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, and targeted a Ministry of Defense site in Isfahan in central Iran, hitting a building in four areas with precision strikes, they said. Satellite photos showed what appeared to be minor damage to the site's roof, but the people called the mission successful.

The account contradicts Iranian officials who have said the country's air defenses fended off an attempted attack on an ammunition depot that caused minimal damage.

The attack marked another chapter in the long-running conflict between Israel and Iran, with Israel using sabotage, assassination and drone strikes to target Iran's nuclear program and its conventional weapons capabilities, and Iran arming militias along Israel's borders.

The people said the Ministry of Defense site that was targeted Sunday was a weapons-production facility. It stands across the street from a site belonging to the Iran Space Research Center, which is under U.S. sanctions for its work on Iran's ballistic-missile program. The space-research center houses the Institute for Materials and Energy, which conducts research that could be used in the development of drones, missiles, satellites and for testing metals for the nuclear project,said Ronen Solomon, an independent intelligence analyst in Israel.

On Monday, Iranian state media displayed fragments of the small drones used in the strike. If authentic, the depicted drones are most likely Chinese-made quadcopter drones with limited range that may have been launched from within Iran, given their small size and Isfahan's location hundreds of miles from its country's borders, said Tal Beeri, head of the Alma Center Research Department in Israel and a former Israeli military-intelligence officer.

Israel's strike hasn't been publicly acknowledged by the country's leadership." [1]

1. World News: Israeli Drone Strike Said to Be Broader Than Iran's Account
Lieber, Dov.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 31 Jan 2023: A.7.