Russian drone engineers hid in Iranian hotel during Israeli airstrike

Team of Russian drone engineers working with Iran hid in hotel during Israeli airstrike on drone factory.

By World Israel News Staff

Russian drone engineers who were visiting Iran earlier this year were forced to hide like mice in a hotel when the Iranian drone factory they were inspecting came under Israeli attack, The Washington Post reported Friday.

In late January, Tehran claimed that it had foiled a series of attacks by suicide drone aircraft against six facilities in the city of Isfahan.

Days later, Iran accused Israel of carrying out the attack, which had targeted facilities used to produce the Shahed-136, an Iranian kamikaze drone currently used by Moscow in its ongoing war with Ukraine.

Despite Iran’s downplaying of the attack, according to the Post report Friday, a delegation of Russian engineers were placed on lockdown in a hotel after the attack was launched, given concerns for their safety.

The team were reportedly dispatched by Russia to study Iranian drone manufacturing techniques, in order to lay the groundwork for plans to open a new factory in eastern Russia to supply Moscow with additional Shahed-136 drone aircraft.

The new facility, in development in the Alabuga Special Economic zone in Russia’s Republic Tatarstan, remains behind schedule, the Post reported, citing a source involved at the Alabuga factory.

“This was the only thing I could do to at least stop and maybe create some obstacles to the implementation of this project,” the source said, expressing opposition to the war with Ukraine. “It has gone too far.”