Iran began launching hundreds of suicide attack drones toward Israel on Saturday in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus on April 1.
Iran began launching hundreds of suicide attack drones toward Israel on Saturday in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus on April 1.
With Israel’s war with Hamas showing no signs of abetting, the strikes marked another major moment of turbulence in the Middle East that threatens to tip the region into a wider war. Iran’s decision to retaliate against Israel from its own soil raised eyebrows among experts, even as the attacks appeared to be carefully calibrated.
“This is very significant, as Iran has avoided directly attacking Israel, normally choosing to use proxy forces to ostensibly shield them directly from retaliation,” said Michael Mulroy, a former U.S. defense official.
As the drones were buzzing through Iraqi airspace, Iran said it also sent a wave of ballistic missiles toward Israel, but Israeli officials said there is no indication of such launches so far. Israeli officials indicated that it might take several hours, if not more, for the drones to enter Israeli airspace and in the meantime that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were working with U.S. Central Command to jam and intercept the drones before they reached that point. The British Royal Air Force also deployed fighter jets to the region to assist with interception, and Jordan said it would shoot down any Iranian drones or missiles that entered its airspace. Many of the intercepts of the first wave of drones appeared to be successful. The IDF also said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon in response.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the attack on Israel. “The Revolutionary Guards hit certain targets in the territories of the Zionist regime with dozens of drones and missiles,” the group said in an initial statement, before later revising it to say the drones and missiles had been launched but omitting language about targets having been hit.
This attack is among the largest by Iran in the region since the 2019 drone strikes on Saudi oil refineries and the 2020 strikes against Iraqi air bases hosting U.S. troops in response to the killing of Qassem Suleimani, who led the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.
But Iran also appeared to telegraph the attack on Israel long in advance, giving the Israelis and their allies plenty of time to prepare their air defenses. In the hours before the strikes, both Jordan and Israel shut down their airspace to commercial traffic, while U.S. tankers refueled U.S. fighter jets lining the skies over Iraq.
“It does seem like it was telegraphed,” Mulroy said. “Perhaps to allow them to be shot down.”
Matt Duss, a former advisor to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and now the executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based think tank, saw the moves as an Iranian effort to restore deterrence but hoped for a restrained effort. “Basically everyone is hoping that the Iranian government acts with more rationality and restraint than the Israeli government, is where we’re at right now,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who returned early from a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday for an emergency National Security Council meeting, was briefed on potential U.S. options by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Biden was getting regular updates from his advisors. “President Biden has been clear: Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad,” Watson said in a statement. “The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.” The White House anticipated the attack would unfold over a number of hours.
“The severity and success of this strike will likely be determinative of whether this escalates to a regional conflict,” Mulroy said. “One that could include the United States.”
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