IRAN-ISRAEL WARIsrael-Iran Stealthy War Intensifies

Published 17 March 2022

Last Sunday, Iran launched a missile attack which destroyed an Israeli intelligence facility located in Irbil, in the Kurdish autonomous zone in Iraq. The Iranian attack was in retaliation for a daring, and successful, mid-February Israeli attack, using six armed drones, on an Iranian drone production facility, in which hundreds of advanced Iranian drones were destroyed. Israel operates several intelligence and military bases in the Kurdish region and in Azerbaijan.

Early last Sunday morning, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missiles which destroyed what Iran described as an “Israeli intelligence center” located next to the U.S. consulate in the city of Irbil, in Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region.

At first it appeared that the Iranian attack was aimed at the U.S. consulate itself. Within hours, however, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters that the American consulate was not the target of the attack.

Israeli sources say that the Iranian attack was in retaliation for a daring, and successful, mid-February Israeli attack, using six armed drones, on an Iranian drone production facility, in which hundreds of advanced Iranian drones were destroyed.

The Israeli February attack was a painful blow to Iran. Over the last few years Iran has invested considerable efforts and funds in developing its drone fleet. Iran’s air force is no match for Israel’s Air Force, and Iran sees advanced drones and cruise missiles as a strategic equalizer in its regional rivalry with Israel.

Iran has also been supplying drones to its local allies – Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran demonstrated its drone capabilities in its September 2019 attack in Saudi Arabia, in which dozens of drones and cruise missiles evaded Saudi – and U.S.– detection to inflict serious damage on Saudi oil facilities. The attack shocked Israel and the U.S. into a recognition of advanced Iran had become in developing its own weapon systems.

The stealthy war between Israel and Iran takes place in both the kinetic domain and in the cyber domain.

In the kinetic domain, Israeli has been bombing Iranian targets in Syria – especially labs and production facilities Iran operates for developing and building ever-more-precise missiles; the warehouses where these missiles are stored; and the convoys attempting to deliver these weapons to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.

Israel has used drones – some guided by satellites – to attack nuclear-weapons-related sites inside Iran, and kill several nuclear scientists and high-level military leaders.

In fighting Iran, Israel must overcome a major obstacle: distance. The solution: It is reported that Israel is operating secret military and intelligence bases in the Kurdish region of Iraq and in Azerbaijan.

Israeli relationship with the Kurds goes back to the early 1970s, when Israeli military officers trained Kurdish fighters to fight the increasingly oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. That relationship was renewed, and deepened, after the Kurdish region became autonomous in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.