DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bomb-carrying drones focused an Iranian defense manufacturing facility in the central metropolis of Isfahan in a single day, authorities mentioned early Sunday, inflicting some injury on the plant amid heightened regional and worldwide tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian Defense Ministry provided no info on who it suspected carried out the attack, which got here as a refinery hearth individually broke out in the nation’s northwest and a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck close by, killing three folks.

However, Tehran has been focused in suspected Israeli drone strikes amid a shadow struggle with its Mideast rival as its nuclear cope with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions additionally stay excessive with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that nation’s embassy in Tehran, killing its safety chief and wounding two others.

Details on the Isfahan attack, which occurred round 11:30 p.m. Saturday, remained scarce. A Defense Ministry assertion described three drones being launched on the facility, with two of them efficiently shot down. A 3rd apparently made it by means of to strike the constructing, inflicting “minor damage” to its roof and wounding nobody, the ministry mentioned.

Iranian state tv’s English-language arm, Press TV, aired cell phone video apparently exhibiting the second that drone struck alongside the busy Imam Khomeini Expressway that heads northwest out of Isfahan, certainly one of a number of methods for drivers to go to the holy metropolis of Qom and Tehran, Iran’s capital. A small crowd stood gathered, drawn by anti-aircraft hearth, watching as an explosion and sparks struck a darkish constructing.

“Oh my God! That was a drone, wasn’t it?” the man filming shouts. “Yeah, it was a drone.”

Those there fled after the strike.

That footage of the strike, in addition to footage of the aftermath analyzed by The Associated Press, corresponded to a website on Minoo Street in northwestern Isfahan that is close to a shopping mall that features a carpet and an electronics retailer.

Iranian defense and nuclear websites more and more discover themselves surrounded by industrial properties and residential neighborhoods because the nation’s cities sprawl ever outward. Some places as properly stay extremely opaque about what they produce, with solely an indication bearing a Defense Ministry or paramilitary Revolutionary Guard emblem.

The Defense Ministry solely known as the positioning a “workshop,” without elaborating on what it made. Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran, is home to both a large air base built for its fleet of American-made F-14 fighter jets and its Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center.

The attack comes after Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan. A segment aired on Iranian state TV in October included purported confessions by alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party that is exiled from Iran and now lives in Iraq, that they planned to target a military aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

Activists say Iranian state TV has aired hundreds of coerced confessions over the last decade. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.

Separately, Iran’s state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. It said the cause was not yet known, as it showed footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. Tabriz is some 520 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Tehran.

State TV also said the magnitude 5.9 earthquake killed three people and injured 816 others in rural areas in West Azerbaijan province, damaging buildings in many villages.

Iran’s theocratic government faces challenges both at home and abroad as its nuclear program rapidly enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels since the collapse of its atomic accord with world powers.

Nationwide protests have shaken the country since the September death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman detained by the country’s morality police. Its rial currency has plummeted to new lows against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, Iran continues to arm Russia with the bomb-carrying drone that Moscow uses in attacks in Ukraine on power plants and civilian targets.

Israel is suspected of launching a series of attacks on Iran, including an April 2021 assault on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a sophisticated attack that killed its top military nuclear scientist.

Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently re-entered the premiership, long has considered Iran to be the biggest threat his nation faces. The U.S. and Israel also just held their largest-ever military exercise amid the tensions with Iran.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Iran as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia — something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.

Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which has infuriated Iranian hard-liners, and has purchased Israeli-made drones for its military.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned online that the Isfahan attack represented one more event in the “dangerous escalation the region is witnessing.” The United Arab Emirates was focused in missile and drone assaults final 12 months claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

It “is not in the interest of the region and its future,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. “Although the problems of the region are complex, there is no alternative to dialogue.”

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Associated Press author Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has denied American claims that it’s transport artillery shells and ammunition to Russia to be used in its warfare towards Ukraine, and on Tuesday accused the United States of mendacity.

The denial follows dozens of weapons checks by North Korea, together with short-range missiles which might be seemingly nuclear-capable and an intercontinental ballistic missile that would goal the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang stated it was testing the missiles and artillery so it may “mercilessly” strike key South Korean and U.S. targets if it selected to.

North Korea has been cozying up to conventional ally Russia in recent times and even hinted at sending staff to assist rebuild Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. The United States has accused North Korea, one of the crucial weaponized international locations on the earth, of supplying Soviet-era ammunition corresponding to artillery shells, to replenish Russian stockpiles which have been depleted within the Ukraine.

Last week, Russia sent North Korean chief Kim Jong Un a trainload of 30 thoroughbred horses, opening the border with its neighbor for the primary time in 2 1/2 years. Kim is an avid horseman and state media have typically pictured him galloping on snowy mountain trails astride a white charger. The horses, Orlov trotters, are prized in Russia.

Spokespeople of Russia’s Far Eastern Railway instructed the state-run information company Nov. 2 that the primary prepare headed to North Korea with the 30 horses and stated the following prepare was to carry drugs.

Experts say North Korea could also be looking for Russian gas and likewise expertise transfers and provides wanted to advance its navy capabilities as it pursues extra subtle weapons programs.

In September, North Korea restarted its freight prepare service with China, its greatest buying and selling accomplice, ending a five-month hiatus.

Last week, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby accused North Korea of covertly supplying a “significant number” of ammunition shipments to Russia. He stated the United States believes North Korea was making an attempt to obscure the switch route by making it seem the weapons had been being sent to international locations within the Middle East or North Africa.

“We regard such moves of the U.S. as part of its hostile attempt to tarnish the image of (North Korea) in the international arena,” an unidentified vice director at the North Korean ministry’s military foreign affairs office said in a statement carried by state media.

“We once again make clear that we have never had ‘arms dealings’ with Russia and that we have no plan to do so in the future,” the vice director stated.

In September, U.S. officials confirmed a newly declassified U.S. intelligence finding that Russia was in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea. North Korea later dismissed that report, calling on Washington to stop making “reckless remarks” and to “keep its mouth shut.”

On Nov. 2, Kirby said the U.S. has “an idea” of which country or countries the North may funnel the weapons through but wouldn’t specify. He said the North Korean shipments are “not going to change the course of the war,” citing Western efforts to resupply the Ukrainian military.

Slapped by international sanctions and export controls, Russia in August bought Iranian-made drones that U.S. officials said had technical problems. For Russia, experts say North Korea is likely another good option for its ammunitions supply, because the North keeps a significant stockpile of shells, many of them copies of Soviet-era ones.

Even as most of Europe and the West has pulled away, North Korea has pushed to boost relations with Russia, blaming the U.S. for the crisis and decrying the West’s “hegemonic policy” as justifying military action by Russia in Ukraine to protect itself. In July, North Korea became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk territories as independent.

North Korea’s possible arms supply to Russia would be a violation of U.N. resolutions that ban the North from trading weapons with other countries. But it’s unlikely for North Korea to receive fresh sanctions for that because of a division at the U.N. Security Council over America’s confrontations with Russia regarding its war in Ukraine and its separate strategic competitions with China.

Earlier this year, Russia and China already vetoed a U.S.-led attempt to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its series of ballistic missile tests that are banned by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Some observers say North Korea has also been using the Russian aggression in Ukraine as a window to ramp up weapons testing activity and dial up pressure on the United States and South Korea. Last week, the North test-fired dozens of missiles in response to large-scale U.S.-South Korea aerial drills that Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for a potential invasion.

In a separate statement published Tuesday by state media, a senior North Korean diplomat criticized U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent condemnation of North Korea’s missile launch barrage, calling him a “mouthpiece” of the U.S. government.

“The U.N. secretary general is echoing what the White House and the State Department say as if he were their mouthpiece, which is deplorable,” said Kim Son Gyong, vice minister for international organizations at the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

Kim said that Guterres’ “unfair and prejudiced behavior” has contributed to the worsening tensions in the region.

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea early Friday launched a short-range ballistic missile towards its japanese waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, additional elevating animosities triggered by the North’s current barrage of weapons checks.

South Korea’s navy additionally stated it detected North Korea firing about 170 rounds of artillery from japanese and western coastal areas near the border area and that the shells fell inside maritime buffer zones the Koreas established underneath a 2018 navy settlement on decreasing tensions.

The North Korean strikes counsel it will sustain a provocative run of weapons checks designed to bolster its nuclear functionality for now. Some specialists say North Korea would ultimately need the United States and others to simply accept it as a nuclear state, lifting financial sanctions and making different concessions.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated in an announcement the missile lifted off from the North’s capital area at 1:49 a.m. Friday (1649 GMT Thursday; 12:49 p.m. EDT Thursday).

While not one of the North Korean artillery shells fell inside South Korean territorial waters, the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the firings as a transparent violation of the 2018 settlement, which created buffer zones alongside land and sea boundaries and no-fly zones above the border to forestall clashes.

Friday’s ballistic launch prolonged a report variety of missile demonstrations by North Korea this 12 months because it exploits the distraction created by Russia’s battle on Ukraine to speed up its arms growth and improve stress on Washington and its Asian allies.

In response to North Korea’s intensifying testing exercise and hostility, South Korea on Friday imposed unilateral sanctions on the North for the primary time in 5 years, focusing on 15 North Korean people and 16 organizations suspected of involvement in illicit actions to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada stated the missile flew on an “irregular” trajectory — a potential reference to explain the North’s extremely maneuverable KN-23 weapon modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile.

“Whatever the intentions are, North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches are absolutely impermissible and we cannot overlook its substantial advancement of missile technology,” Hamada stated. “North Korea’s series of actions pose threats to Japan, as well as the region and the international community, and are absolutely intolerable.”

The South Korean and Japanese militaries assessed that the missile traveled 650 to 700 kilometers (403-434 miles) at a most altitude of fifty kilometers (30 miles) earlier than touchdown in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command stated in an announcement the North Korean launch didn’t pose an instantaneous risk to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies, including that the U.S. commitments to the protection of South Korea and Japan stay “ironclad.”

It was the most recent in a sequence of missile launches by North Korea in current weeks.

North Korea stated Monday that its missile checks prior to now two weeks simulated nuclear assaults on key South Korean and U.S. targets. It stated the checks included a brand new intermediate-range missile that flew over Japan and demonstrated a possible vary to succeed in the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, and a ballistic missile fired from an inland reservoir, a primary for the nation.

North Korea stated the weapons checks had been meant to challenge a warning to Seoul and Washington for staging “dangerous” joint naval workouts involving a U.S. plane provider.

Friday’s launch was the North’s second since its announcement on the simulation of nuclear strikes. Some observers had predicted North Korea would doubtless quickly pause its testing actions in consideration of its main ally China, which is about to start a serious political convention Sunday to present President Xi Jinping a 3rd five-year time period as social gathering chief.

North Korea stated chief Kim Jong Un supervised the test-launches Wednesday of long-range cruise missiles that he stated efficiently demonstrated his navy’s increasing nuclear strike capabilities.

After the checks, Kim praised the readiness of his nuclear forces, which he stated had been absolutely ready for “actual war to bring enemies under their control at a blow” with numerous weapons programs which might be “mobile, precise and powerful.” He also vowed to expand the operational realm of his nuclear armed forces, according to KCNA.

There are concerns that Kim could up the ante soon with his first nuclear test since 2017 or by triggering military skirmishes with the South that could be followed by threats of using his nukes.

The Koreas have so far avoided major skirmishes following their 2018 military agreement, which is one of the few tangible remnants from former South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s engagement efforts with Kim.

Moon also helped set up Kim’s first summit with former U.S. President Donald Trump in June 2018, but the diplomacy collapsed after the second Kim-Trump meeting in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of their nuclear capabilities.

The urgency of North Korea’s nuclear program has grown since it passed a new law last month authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios, including non-war situations when it may perceive its leadership as under threat.

Most of the recent North Korean tests were mostly of short-range nuclear-capable missiles targeting South Korea. Some experts say North Korea’s possible upcoming nuclear test, the first of in five years, would be related to efforts to manufacture battlefield tactical warheads to be placed on such short-range missiles.

These developments sparked security jitters in South Korea, with some politicians and scholars renewing their calls for the U.S. to redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea as deterrence against intensifying North Korean nuclear threats.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a separate statement that North Korea had flown warplanes, presumably 10 aircraft, near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets.

The North Korean planes flew as close as 12 kilometers (7 miles) north of the inter-Korean border. South Korea responded by scrambling F-35 jets and other warplanes, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

There were no reports of clashes. A similar incident took place last week, but it was still uncommon for North Korea to fly its warplanes near the border. Also, in the previous flight last week, North Korean warplanes flew much farther away from the border.

North Korea’s military early Friday accused South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border. The North Korean military said it took unspecified “strong military countermeasures” in response.

“The (North) Korean People’s Army sends a stern warning to the South Korean military inciting military tension in the front-line area with reckless action,” an unidentified spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by KCNA.

South Korea’s military later confirmed it conducted artillery training at a site 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away from the Koreas’ military demarcation line and said the training did not violate the conditions of the 2018 agreement.

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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed.