Satellite footage released on Monday revealed the extent of damage of a drone attack attributed to Israel on an Iranian drone warehouse last month.
Tehran initially reported that a fire had broken out at an "industrial storage depot" in the province of Kermanshah in western Iran.
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In this satellite image taken February 18, 2022, damage is seen to a site belonging to the IRGC in the Iranian province of Kermanshah
(Photo: Planet Labs PBC via Aurora Intel)
According to foreign media reports, six Israeli drones carrying a large number of explosives took part in the attack on the warehouse, causing great damage to the facility and its surroundings.
Over 100 Iranian attack drones were reportedly destroyed in the attack, dealing a significant blow to the drone fleet of the country's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) paramilitary group.
Iran's Nour news agency reported in February that "a fire broke out in a storage space that holds engine oil and other flammable substances in an IRGC base... and there was extensive damage to an industrial storage depot."
Iran said the fire was extinguished, and that teams were dispatched to the location to investigate the source of the fire.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council reported no casualties in the incident.
Following the same attack on the drone factory, the Iranians responded by launching missiles towards civilian targets in Erbil, the Kurdish capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Iranians claimed that their accurate missiles hit an Israeli Mossad training camp and killed Israeli officers and soldiers.
Last week, Iran's state media reported that the IRGC launched in response a dozen ballistic missiles that struck alleged Israeli "strategic centers" in Iraq's northern Kurdish regional capital of Erbil in the early hours of Sunday while warning the Jewish state of a "harsh response" if it retaliates.
"Any repetition of attacks by Israel will be met with a harsh, decisive and destructive response," the IRGC said in a statement reported by state media.
The missiles caused only material damage and one civilian was injured, the Kurdish interior ministry said. An Iraqi security official said the missiles were manufactured in Iran.