Five rockets targeted the Iraqi Balad airbase, north of Baghdad, on Sunday
The attack injured five people, wounding two foreign contractors at the base
Two of the rockets fired crashed into a dormitory and canteen used by US troops
It coincides with rising tensions between Baghdad s Iran allies and Washington
There have been around 20 bomb or rocket attacks against American interests, including bases hosting US soldiers, since US President Joe Biden took office
“We are one of the five leading countries in the world in the area of drone technology”, beamed Iranian General Sharam Hassanejad of the Vali-e Asr drone force in an interview with Iranian state media last October.
The general’s words were not an empty boast. Iran has amassed a significant arsenal of drones an arsenal which satellite imagery can reveal in hitherto unseen detail.
On January 4, 2021, a WorldView-2 satellite captured a part of Iran’s drone fleet on a remote airstrip in the desert near Semnan in the country’s North. The image it took was exclusively provided to Bellingcat by European Space Imaging, showing over 154 drones of various types lined up for a large exercise by the Iranian armed forces on January 6.
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel s diplomatic reporter
In this Jan. 25, 2011 file photo, demonstrators deface a poster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, Egypt. (AP Photo)
Ten years ago, in late 2010 and early 2011, the Arab world experienced a series of convulsions that tore apart the Middle East as we knew it. Starting in Tunisia, where a young fruit vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest corruption and police abuse, angry demonstrations spread throughout the region. Some of the world’s longest-ruling leaders were toppled within months. There was a sense of optimism, that the long-suffering citizens of Arab nations were finally rising up to demand basic human rights and dignity in secular, youth-led popular uprisings.
15 April 2021
Iran International TV has reported that a research drone belonging to Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), a subset of Iran’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Force Logistics (MODAFL) crashed this week in Shahinshahr Province due to a technical error.
It is reported that there were no injuries, and Nasser Hosseini Manjezi, the deputy governor of Shahinshahr confirmed the crash of the drone and said: “This drone crashed due to a technical defect in the clock system, but fortunately did not cause any casualties.”
The research drone’s crash offers an insight into Iran’s military ambitions and its growing drone industry, as HESA continues to develop unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for surveillance and possible attack.