Explosions heard near Iranian military base days after Israel vowed to respond to earlier Iranian attack [Video]

Explosions echoed over an Iranian city in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident, which closed airspace for a time on Friday.

Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from Iran’s air defences hitting three drones over the city of Isfahan. Notably, they referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators,” rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.

Israel said nothing about the incident. It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for strikes on April 13, the first ever direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies, which has escalated throughout the Middle East through six months of battle in Gaza.

The two longstanding foes had been heading toward direct confrontation since a presumed Israeli airstrike on April 1 that destroyed a building …