CNN —
Drones attacked a military facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan, Tehran said on Sunday.
“An explosion has occurred in one of the military centers attached to the Defense Ministry,” Isfahan governorate deputy security chief Mohammad Reza Jan-Nesari told the semi-official Fars news agency.
Jan-Nesari said the blast left some damage “but fortunately there were no casualties”.
The state news agency IRNA later said the explosion was caused by “small drones”.
“There was an unsuccessful attack by small drones on a Defense Department industrial complex and fortunately with forecasts and air defenses in place, one of them (hit)” IRNA said in a post on Twitter, citing the country’s defense ministry.
“The air defense system of the complex was able to destroy two more drones. Fortunately, no one was killed in this unsuccessful attack and the complex’s roof sustained minor damage.”
The ministry said the attack took place at 10:30 p.m. local time.
The plant is around 440 kilometers south of Tehran.
Several explosions and suspicious fires have occurred near Iranian military and nuclear facilities in recent years.
In July 2020, a fire devastated Iran’s Natanz nuclear complex in Isfahan province south of the capital Tehran, a site critical to the country’s uranium enrichment program. Iranian authorities decided not to publicly announce the results of the fire cause for security reasons, according to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
The following year, on the anniversary of National Atomic Energy Day, a power outage occurred in Natanz, which the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) described as a “terrorist action”. Israel’s army chief appeared to hint at possible Israeli involvement in the incident.
In October 2019, a National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) oil tanker was hit and damaged by two missiles. A spokesman for the National Iranian Tanker Company initially suggested that it may have been launched from Saudi soil, but this was later denied and the Iranian government did not provide an alternative conclusion.
Earlier this year, a truck loaded with explosives detonated, hitting a bus carrying members of the Iranian military’s elite Revolutionary Guards in the southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan, killing at least 23 and injuring 17. A separatist group called Jaish al-Adl or Army of Justice claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.