Two Iranian drones were shot down over Iraq on February 14 by U.S. warplanes as they were headed to perform an attack in Israel, security officials said on Monday, lifting a gag order.
The incident came days before a strike attributed to Israel that targeted a drone warehouse at a western Iranian airbase in Kermanshah, prompting Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to launch a dozen ballistic missiles on what they claimed without evidence to be an Israeli "strategic center" in the Kurdish-ruled city of Erbil in northern Iraq.
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Wreckage of a drone lying on the ground at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq, January 3, 2022
(Photo: AP)
On February 14, "several low-flying drones westward from the eastern border region of Iraq" were shot down, a coalition member had told the BBC.
Images of one of the drones posted online showed a design similar to Iran's Shahed-136 model.
"The drone has been seized and is being analyzed by coalition forces," the official said, adding that the same model had previously been used by "malicious suspects" against targets in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli officials confirmed on Monday that the devices were heading toward the Jewish state.
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The aftermath of the Iranian missile attack on an alleged Israeli facility in Iraq
(Photo: Reuters)
Israel has repeatedly warned that Iranian drones pose a real threat to the region, especially as Tehran's proxies are stationed along its northern borders.
The Israel Defense Forces have confirmed intercepting at least four Iranian drones heading toward Israel or the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years.