Illustrative image.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, announced on August 25 that it had carried out a drone attack against the Israeli Mediterranean port city of Haifa.
The attack targeted a “vital target” in Haifa, the group said in a statement, noting that the attack was carried out “in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity [Israel] against civilians, including children, women, and the elderly” in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.
“The Islamic Resistance affirms that it will continue to destroy the strongholds of the enemy,” the group concluded.
Video footage released by the IRI showed the launch of what appears to be an Iranian-made Shahed-101 suicide drone. Aside from having a range of several hundred kilometers, not much is known about the relatively small drone.
Multiple interceptions were reported over northern Israel. However, it is still unclear if any of them was linked to the IRI attack.
It’s worth noting that the attack just a few hours before Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones at targets in northern and central Israel as well as in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights in response to the killing of its top commander Fuad Shukr late last July. Still, nothing suggests that the two attacks were coordinated.
The IRI began launching attacks against Israel as well as against United States forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria in response to Israel’s bloody war on Gaza and Washington’s unwavering support for it.
The group suspended attacks against U.S. forces last February 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. Nevertheless, it escalated attacks against Israel starting from March.
Israel has not openly responded to the IRI’s attacks yet. Nevertheless, it was blamed for several strikes that targeted Iran-backed armed factions along the Syrian-Iraqi border and near the Syrian capital, Damascus, after the start of the war in Gaza.
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