TEHRAN – An Iranian media outlet linked to the country’s top security council said “counterrevolutionary Kurdish groups” played a logistical role in the attack that targeted a military facility in Isfahan.

Nour News, which is close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the Kurdish groups smuggled the equipment used in the attack from Iraqi Kurdistan. 

“Parts of the quadcopters used in the recent act of sabotage against the workshop of the Ministry of Defense in Isfahan and the explosive materials have been brought to Iran with participation and direction from counterrevolutionary Kurdish groups based in Iraq’s Kurdistan region,” Nour News said. 

According to Nour News, these groups received the parts of the quadcopters and the explosive materials by orders of a foreign security service and then smuggled them through Iran’s northwestern porous borders.  They then delivered the contraband to a security service agent in one of Iran’s border cities. 

The parts and materials were assembled in an equipped workshop using trained forces in Iran, Nour News added. 

This is the second time Kurdish groups get the blame for an act of sabotage orchestrated by Israel. Last August, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence announced that it arrested members of a Kurdish group trained by Israel’s spy agencies to target an important military facility in Isfahan. 

Nour News said Iran repeatedly told the Iraqi government to prevent such subversive acts by Kurdish groups but the Iraqi government has failed to abide by its legal obligations in this regard. 

The Iranian Defense Ministry said in an early Sunday statement that the Iranian air defense forces repelled a drone strike on a military workshop in the central city of Isfahan on Saturday night.

The ministry said one of its workshop complexes had come under attack from a number of micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), but the complex’s air defenses successfully repelled the attack.

“One of the MAVs was downed by the complex’s air defense fire, while the other two were caught in its defensive traps and exploded,” the statement added, according to Tasnim.

Israeli and Western media attributed the attack to Israel. “The Isfahan attack was not successful, and the words of the Israeli sources are just propaganda to cover up the failure,” an Iranian official told Al Jazeera on Monday. 

The official added, “Preliminary practical indications point to Israel's involvement in the Isfahan attack, and the investigation must be pursued. It is likely that the drones were launched from inside Iran and close to the target site.”

The official warned, “Israel knows very well that it will receive a response, and this is what happened previously, far from the noise and the abundance of statements. Washington distances itself from the attack because it knows it is a failure and will not push Tehran to change its policies. There are those who play with fire, and we have no doubt that they will be the first to burn if they decide to start a regional war.”

Iran’s parliament is set to dispatch a delegation to Isfahan to investigate the attack.