Hundreds of Iranian Drones Destroyed in Israel-attributed Attack Last Month

Six Israeli drones struck a base in western Iran, reports say, in what may have been the motive for Tehran's Saturday night missile strike on Irbil

By Amos Harel @Haaretz Mar. 15, 2022

An aerial attack in Iran last month caused heavy damage to the country’s drone network, with several estimates saying that hundreds of drones were destroyed.

Tehran blames Israel for the attack, but Israel has not admitted responsibility.

Neither country had even mentioned the attack until earlier this week. It was reported for the first time on Sunday by the Lebanese television station Al Mayadeen, which has ties to both Hezbollah and Iran.

According to Al Mayadeen, this was the reason for Saturday night’s Iranian missile attack on Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The station said this attack was Iran’s retaliation for the bombing of a drone base near the western Iranian city of Kermanshah in mid-February. The latter attack was carried out by six Israeli drones, it added.

Iran publicly claimed responsibility for the Irbil attack, which it said targeted an Israeli military base. Kurdistan’s government denied that, saying the rockets hit a civilian facility.

In recent years, Iran has made extensive use of armed drones in attacks throughout the Middle East. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards also gave some of their armed drones to the Houthis in Yemen and Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria. In addition, Hezbollah has its own drones.

• Covert drone war between Israel and Iran goes public with missile launch on Iraq

• U.S. working to help Iraq get missile defense capabilities, Sullivan says after Iranian attack

• Hezbollah becomes a drone expert. Israel becomes an expert at downing them

Over the last few weeks, Israel has downed one Hezbollah drone over the Galilee, while another managed to penetrate Israeli airspace and then escape. The Israel Defense Forces also announced recently that it downed Iranian drones last year with its F-35 fighter jets, the first such interception in the world.

Israeli defense sources told Haaretz last year that Iran viewed the drones as a partial solution to Israel’s aerial superiority in their ongoing military clashes. They therefore predicted that the Iranians would continue using them.

The largest and most destructive such Iranian attack took place in September 2019 and targeted Saudi oil facilities, causing major damage to Saudi Aramco oil company.

The numerous incidents, of which the latest was Monday night’s report of a large-scale cyberattack on Israeli websites that was attributed to Iran, show that the conflict between the two countries is escalating. This escalation is happening at a time when in Vienna, negotiations between Iran and five other countries over a new nuclear deal have reached the decisive stage.

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