Iran airs footage of underground drone base, days after strike at Parchin facility

Iran’s army unveiled on Saturday some details about an underground base for its drones, as tensions ramped up following a UAV strike on an Iranian military complex and the assassination of a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Both those attacks have been linked in some reports to Israel, which has made no official comment.

According to Iran’s state media Saturday, some 100 drones are being kept in the underground facility — in the Zagros mountain range. These include the Ababil-5, which the Iranian reports said is fitted with Qaem-9 missiles, an Iranian copy of the US Hellfire air-to-surface munition, Reuters said, noting that Iran did not provide a specific location for the base.

The semi-official Mehr news agency said a cruise missile — named Heidar-1 — was also unveiled by the army. The agency said it was the first cruise missile capable of being fired from a drone.

“No doubt the drones of Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces are…