Telegram Outlets Linked To IRGC, Iraqi Militias, Downplay Attack On Iran's Isfahan As Harmless, Claim: Iran Would Strike Back If Israel Was Behind It

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On April 19, 2024, Iran said it had shot down three quadcopters that had launched inside its borders the night before, targeting the central province of Isfahan which houses the main nuclear facilities at Natanz.[1]

The attack comes few weeks after Iran launched a missile and drone attack on Israel to avenge the killing of senior IRGC officers who were meeting in the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria.

IRGC Telegram Outlet: Iran To Respond If Attack Was Launched By Israel

Indirectly accusing Israel of carrying out the April 18 attack on Isfahan, "The Iranian Military Capacities" Telegram channel, affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shared a post downplaying the significance of the attack and discussing Iran's potential reaction.

"To end the discussion about the event [the attack on Iran], as long as the army of the Israeli enemy did not officially claim responsibility for the attack on Isfahan, which was carried out via small quadcopters, there will be no response."

Suggesting that Iranian agents working on behalf of Israel might be behind the attack on Isfahan, the channel claimed that the Iranian leadership would have a different attitude if it managed to arrest those agents, or if satellite images confirmed that the Israeli enemy was behind the attack.

"In this case, the decision rests exclusively with the leadership. Will the leadership in the Islamic Republic take the statements of the Israeli official media as an official claim of responsibility? And respond accordingly? This is what we do not know yet, and the matter is left to time," said the channel.

Iraqi Outlet: Israeli Attack Was Harmless

Sabereen News, which is affiliated with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, shared a post featuring two images, one showing Iranian missiles and one showing a small Israeli drone.[2]

Taunting the latter, the channel wrote: "The Iranian response was ballistic missiles and advanced suicide drones, while the Israeli response was a drone used in photographing events and weddings, and available in Bab Al-Sharji market[3] at reasonable prices."

The channel also shared photos showing what the channel described as "the huge failure of the Zionist attack."

The photos showed "the remnants of a Zionist missile which was found in the Al-Aziziya area in Wasit province" in Iraq.[4]

Mocking the accuracy of the missile target which reportedly fell in Iraq, not Iran, the channel further commented: "It seems that the rocket launcher is cross-eyed."