January 29, 2023
· Iran reported a drone attack on a defense facility in the city of Isfaham on Saturday night.
· The Defense Ministry said it shot down two drones and a third struck the building and caused "minor damage."
· It did not say who was suspected to be responsible for the attack.
Bomb-carrying drones attacked an Iranian defense facility in the city of Isfahan on Saturday night, authorities said, according to an Associated Press report.
A Defense Ministry statement said that three drones were launched at the factory. Two were successfully shot down while the third struck the building and caused "minor damage" to the roof, and no casualties were reported.
The ministry described the site as a "workshop" but did not provide any more details about what it makes.
A mobile phone video was aired by state TV, appearing to show the moment the drone struck the building and caused an explosion in the central Iranian city.
It did not say who was suspected to be responsible for the attack. However, Israel has previously been accused of hitting military and nuclear targets in Iran, including the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the "father" of Iran's nuclear weapons program, and a purported cyber attack on Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility in 2021.
The strike also comes amid heightened tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman opened fire at the Azeri embassy in Tehran on Friday.
Reports of the drone strike came as a large fire broke out at an oil refinery near the city of Tabriz on Saturday.
Iran has reported several incidents relating to its facilities in recent years.
In June, Iran claimed to have stopped a "sabotage attack" targeting a civilian nuclear facility in Tehran.
Authorities also claimed in July to have thwarted a plot to blow up a "sensitive" defense facility in Isfahan, and arrested a group of Kurdish militants who they accused of working with Israel.
On another occasion, an engineer was killed at the Parchin military complex in what Iran described as an "accident," but which The New York Times reported was a drone strike that fit the pattern of Israeli strikes.
Massive fire breaks out at oil refinery in Iran
January 28, 2023
A massive fire broke out at an oil refinery in northwestern Iran on Saturday, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
The refinery is near the city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province.
“The firefighting is still going on and the size and intensity of the fire made it difficult to extinguish,” Fars reported.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, Fars added.
“Right now, 25 fire engines at the site are extinguishing the fire,” Mohammad Baqer Hanbar, director general of crisis management of East Azerbaijan Governorate, said as cited by Fars.
“So far, there has been one firefighter injured in this incident who suffered from smoke inhalation, and the person is in stable condition,” Fars said citing Hanbar.
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