By Pishtaz | 2024-07-29

The explosives-laden drone the Houthis used in their July 19 attack on Tel Aviv -- which killed a 50-year-old civilian and wounded eight others -- can be directly linked to the Iranian regime, analysts said.

The regime's purported outrage at Israel's retaliatory targeting of the Houthi-controlled port of al-Hodeidah therefore rings hollow, they said, as does the Houthis' threat to carry out a "huge retaliation" for an attack they themselves provoked.

"The Houthis don't build their own drones, and they don't build their own missiles. None of them are homemade," said military analyst Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at King's College London.

"They're all assembled in Yemen but are entirely based on Iranian infrastructure, Iranian blueprints and Iranian technology," he told AFP.

The Houthis claimed they had used a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, dubbed "Yafa" in their attack on Tel Aviv.

There are signs that Yafa is an updated model of the Samad-3 drone, the group's "standard long-range strike drone," said Fabian Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who analyzed drone debris footage.

"If you look closely at the debris and the pictures that we have, including of the engine, parts of the fuselage, and one wing, you can see that the UAV that was used has very strong similarities to the Samad-3," he said.

"It might be a new version of that design," he added, noting that Yafa's Iranian-made engine appears to be more powerful than previous models.

Photographs of weapons displayed and fired by the Iranian regime and the Houthis, as well as weapons intercepted at sea en route to the Houthis, strongly suggest their Iranian origin, according to a February report from the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

The Samad drone, which the Houthis began using in 2018, has elements consistent with the Iranian Sayad drone, it says.

Regime-made drone

The Houthis have used the Samad-3 in previous strikes against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Israeli city of Eilat several times, in attacks that were intercepted, Hinz said.

The pictures of the debris appeared to show a "slightly higher performance" Iranian regime-made engine than those normally seen on the Samad-3, he said.

It was unclear, he added, "whether it's a standard Samad-3 version that just got lucky and got through, or whether it's a slightly upgraded or improved version."

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said the drone that targeted Tel Aviv was a regime-made Samad-3 that had been modified to fly greater distances, the Washington Post reported.

Other regime-backed groups, in Iraq and Lebanon, had tended to use smaller Samad models than the one used July 19.

The Iranian regime's continued provision of missiles and technical support to its proxies has kept the Middle East in a state of constant tension through which the regime can penetrate the countries of the region and achieve its expansionist plans.

And while the regime continues to spend millions on arming its proxies and building its missile program, Iranian citizens are being crushed under the weight of economic stagflation.