Iran’s State Media Shows off Underground Base Filled With Armed Drones
Iran’s state media on Saturday showcased an underground drone base, and an Islamic Republic stockpile of military drones, outfitted with surface-to-air missiles. According to the report, the base is located somewhere in the Zagros mountains, in the northwest of the country on the border with Iraq, and is several hundred meters underground. Footage aired on Iran state television showed rows of armed drones. The inside look at the drone tunnel comes after an explosion at Iran’s Parchin military complex, which The New York Times reported had been caused by an attack with a suicide drone launched from within the country similar to other attacks said to have been carried out by Israel, and comes after the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari on the street outside of his home in Tehran. The Times also reported that Israel told the US it was responsible for Khodayari’s death. Iran had publicly called the explosion, which killed an engineer, an accident, but later switched to using the term incident. The International Atomic Energy Agency has accused Parchin of conducting tests of triggers meant to detonate a nuclear bomb. The assassination of Khodayari comes less than two years after lead Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in an attack blamed on Israel’s Mossad.