Screen grab from one of the videos released by the IRI.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Iranian-backed armed factions, announced on March 5 that it has begun a “second phase” of operations against Israel in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
On the same day, the group said that targeted a power plant in the northern Israeli city fo Haifa with a suicide drone. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced at the time that one of its fighter jets shot down a “suspicious aerial target,” believed to be a drone, that entered Israeli airspace from Syria.
On March 6, the IRI announced that it had attacked Kiryat Shemona Airport, also located in northern Israel, with a suicide drone. Hebrew media didn’t report any incident on that day.
And on March 7, the group said that it had launched another suicide drone at a position of the IDF in the Rosh Pinna Airport in northern Israel.
The drone was however shot down by Syrian air defenses over the southern governorate of al-Qunitra by mistake. Photos showing the wreckage of the drone were released by the Syrian Ministry of Defense.
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On March 8, the IRI launched two drone attacks, one targeted an intelligence base of the IDF in the northern part of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the other targeted an oil refinery in Haifa. Again, there were no reports of any incidents in Hebrew media.
All the attacks were carried out using a small suicide drone that is thought to be made in Iran and is commonly known as Shahed-101.
The IRI began launching attacks against Israel as well as against U.S. forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria on October 17 in response to the war on Gaza and Washington’s unwavering support for it. The group mainly used suicide drones, unguided rockets as well as ballistic and cruise missiles.
Early in February, the group suspended attacks against U.S. forces after the death of three American troops in a drone strike on a base in Jordan, reportedly upon a request from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, it continued to launch attacks against Israel from time to time.
The IRI’s latest decision to escalate attacks against Israel shows that the group is still determined to respond to the war on Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 30,000 Palestinians. The group’s latest attacks will likely increase pressure on both Israel and the U.S.
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why would iran ask the iri to cease attacking us forces? something not right.
i told the answer here a thousand times already. between 2004 & 2008 iran (via iran-sponsored shia-iraqi grand ayatollah ali al-sistani) made a deal with the usa, which occupies iraq. allowing them to erase all sunni muslim resistance from iraq & to keep little amount of troops inside, change iraqi law for money & oil, and is sharing the profits from raping iraqi wealth, in exchange for large portion of us occupation forces leaving iraq & usa promising to not attack iran.
now i allowed 1 hour internet to earn taco w special lgbt salsa from cia—ha ha
israel deserve no peace until palestine is free!!!! they are brutal barbaric freaks
they should rather overrun u.s. bases in the area. this is idiotic behavior. what we need is reanimation of 1983 beirut bombings in iraq, which killed 300 u.s. and french troops. let u.s. feel what you think about their supporting of genocide.
everyone should respond to the blatant genocide going on in palestine. the egyptian admin prefered to take a bribe from the isreali apartheid regime rather than respond. soon they will have 2 million palestinian’s living in their desert. i say 2 million but if the isreali apartheid regime carry on their genocide, this figure could well be less. tell me again, what is the purpose of the un?
fckn hell, every single video starts playing when the page is loaded. webmaster, do a better job!
he’s making more trouble for us than the combined muslim word for israel in the field
these attacks have no effect, there is simply too much distance that the drones have to cover. they would be of much better use if they attacked us bases in the region.
100% correct. but iranian leaders are too coward to order shia iraqi hezbollah & co to do so. sunni iraqi resistance (jaish al naqshabandia, 1920 revolution brigades, mujahideen army, kuteba dar-ul islam, jaish abu bakr as-siddiq, ansar al sunnah, jaish al-rashedeen etc.) these groups truely fought the us invaders – while iran made evil deal with usa agains these true iraqi resistance groups. sending even sponsored hezbollah and badr brigades to fight and eliminate them.
glória e poder à resistência iraquiana! vitória aos invencíveis combatentes do hezbollah al-nuyaba!