DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran opened fire on its air defense batteries early Friday after hearing explosions near its main air base near Isfahan, warning of a possible Israeli attack following Tehran’s attack. Concerns grew. Unprecedented drone and missile attack About the country.
It remains unclear whether the country was under attack, as Iranian officials have not directly acknowledged the possibility and the Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment. but, tension The price remained high for several days after that. Saturday’s attack against Israel at war Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own attack target iran In Syria.
An Iranian government official, and then Iran’s state television broadcaster, suggested the site may have been targeted by a drone.
According to IRNA, defense forces opened fire across several states. It did not elaborate on what caused the battery to catch fire, but people across the area reported hearing sounds.
In particular, IRNA announced that air defense shelling was carried out against the main air base in Isfahan, home to the Iranian fleet of US-made F-14 Tomcats purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies also reported the explosion, without specifying the cause. State television confirmed there was “loud noise” in the area.
Isfahan is also home to sites linked to Iran’s nuclear program, including the underground Natanz enrichment facility, which has been repeatedly targeted for suspected Israeli sabotage. However, state television said all scenes in the area were “completely safe”.
Dubai-based airlines Emirates and flydubai began diverting flights to areas near western Iran at around 4:30 a.m. local time. They gave no explanation, but local warnings to airmen suggested the airspace may have been closed.
Iran later announced that it had suspended civil flight operations in Tehran and throughout its western and central regions. An online video was played in which a loudspeaker allegedly alerted customers to the incident at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport.
Iranian state television launched a scrolling on-screen alert acknowledging there was a “loud noise” near Isfahan, without immediately providing details.
Hossein Dalilian, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian space program, said on social media platform X that several small “quadcopter” drones were shot down. A state television reporter in Isfahan echoed the same sentiment, saying in a live broadcast that “several small drones were flying over Isfahan and were fired upon.”
Meanwhile, in Iraq, where many Iranian-backed militias are based, residents in Baghdad reported hearing explosions, although the source of the noise was not immediately clear.
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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
