Photo shows what's left of an advanced American-made Israeli drone downed by Iran in the western province of Ilam
Tel Aviv, July 4 (RHC)-- An Israeli official has confirmed that Israeli drones worth “hundreds of millions” of dollars have gone missing in Iran, during the latter’s defensive operations in the face of an unprovoked war by Tel Aviv.
The regime’s Yedioth Ahronoth paper carried the report earlier, citing an Israeli official, who said the invading unmanned aerial vehicles had “disappeared” within the Iranian territory. The Israeli regime launched the war on June 13th, attacking Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure as well as residential areas with unprecedented military and intelligence support from the United States, its biggest ally.
The Iranian armed forces responded through coordinated defensive operations, deflecting incoming fire and engaging the hostile aircraft that brought down several Israeli warplanes. They also launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, including multi-warhead and hypersonic variants, towards strategic nuclear, military, and industrial targets across the occupied Palestinian territories.
The reprisal, which came as part of the retaliatory Operation True Promise III against the Zionist entity, targeted the heart of Tel Aviv, which is the regime's economic hub; Haifa, its most important deep-water port, and Be'er Sheva, the entity’s modern development and technology epicenter.
According to the regime’s Channel 13, the reprisal has inflicted significant damage to the entity’s military bases and strategic facilities. Israeli officials, including top brass have, however, not come up with any official estimates of the actual extent of the destruction, amid widespread reports pointing to Tel Aviv’s feverish efforts at preventing documentation of the damage by the regime’s settlers.
Nevertheless, according to the regime’s finance ministry, the retaliation is estimated to have cost the entity around $3 billion.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has, meanwhile, said the total cost of the war – apparently including military expenses – could be as high as $12 billion.
Speaking in a televised interview on Saturday, a senior Iranian commander underlined that the Islamic Republic had only engaged less than five percent of its defensive might against the Israeli regime throughout the war.
“Less than five percent of our country’s defensive capacity was actually activated” during the Islamic Republic’s counterstrikes against the regime, Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naqdi, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s deputy commander for coordination, said.
“And by ‘activated’ I do not mean ‘spent.’ It merely means that five percent of our defense units became engaged with the enemy,” the official added.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and NEWS AGENCIES ]
