Washington. November 19. INTERFAX - A strike using drones (UAVs) in October of this year on an American military base in southern Syria was Iran's response to Israeli airstrikes in Syria, The New York Times reported, citing numerous sources from among U.S. and Israeli officials.
It writes that five UAVs were launched at the American military base At-Tanf in southern Syria on October 20, the US Central Command called it a "deliberate and coordinated" attack. Only two drones exploded on impact, they were loaded with ball bearings and shrapnel with "clear intent to kill," a senior U.S. military official told the newspaper.
As a result of the strike, no one was injured, as about 200 people from the base's personnel had been evacuated a few hours earlier, after receiving a message about an impending strike from Israeli intelligence.
The newspaper notes that, according to sources, the strike was carried out under the leadership of Iran by pro-Iranian forces in Syria, but the Pentagon representative "refused to publicly blame Iran, partly in order to avoid disruption of negotiations on the resumption of the nuclear deal with Tehran, which are scheduled to resume on November 29."
Iran has not claimed responsibility for the strike. "There have been a number of similar incidents when they accused Iran without any evidence or documents," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh said last week.
At the same time, sources of the publication claim that the United States and Israel have intelligence that indicates that Iran is behind the operation. Since the three UAVs did not explode, the Americans were able to study them and determine that they used the same technology as the drones used by Iranian-backed militants in Iraq.
