‘More like toys’: Iran downplays drone attack

Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran was investigating an attack on Iran that rattled the world and global markets on Friday, but downplayed the strike, saying that, so far, a link to Israel has not been proven.

Hossein Amirabdollahian told NBC News the drones took off from inside Iran and flew a few hundred metres before being downed by the country’s air defences.

‘‘They’re … more like toys that our children play with, not drones,’’ Amirabdollahian said.

‘‘It has not been proven to us that there is a connection between these and Israel,’’ he said, adding that Iran was investigating but that media reports were not accurate, according to Tehran’s information.

Iranian media and officials described a few explosions, which they said resulted from air defences hitting three drones over Isfahan in central Iran in the early hours of Friday. They referred to the incident as an attack by ‘‘infiltrators’’ using small quadcopters, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.

But he warned that if Israel retaliated and acted against Iran’s interests, Tehran’s next response would be at ‘‘maximum level’’.

‘‘But if not, then we are done. We are concluded,’’ he said.

The attack appeared to target an Iranian Air Force base near the city of Isfahan, deep inside the country, but without causing major damage.

The New York Times, however, reported it hit a crucial part of an Iranian air defence system used for tracking incoming targets.

Israel has said nothing about the incident. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had not been involved in any offensive operations, while the White House had no comment.

Meanwhile, late on Friday (Saturday AEST), a huge blast rocked the Kalso military base near Iskandaruya, south of Baghdad, which is used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), two PMF and two security sources told Reuters.

They said the blast resulted from an unknown airstrike causing material damage but no casualties. Government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Factions within the forces took part in months of rocket and drone attacks on US forces in Iraq amid Israel’s Gaza campaign but ceased to do so in February.

Israel said it would retaliate after its first direct attack by Iran on April 13. There were no deaths as Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones.

Tehran launched those attacks in response to a presumed Israeli airstrike on April 1 that destroyed a building in Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.

Allies including the US had pressed all week to ensure any further retaliation would not to provoke more escalation.

Violence between Israel and Iranian proxies across the Middle East has intensified throughout six months of bloodshed in Gaza, raising fears the shadow war could spiral into a direct conflict.

Israeli planes and tanks pounded several areas across the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes hitting areas of Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering, according to residents, Hamas media and officials at the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

One strike hit two apartments in a residential building in the city, killing nine people and wounding several others, health officials said.

Air strikes also destroyed at least five houses in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, residents and Hamas media said.

‘‘They [Israeli security] phoned some residents and ordered them to evacuate their houses before planes bombed some buildings nearby,’’ Abu Omar, a resident of Al-Nuseirat, told Reuters.

Israel’s government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.