U.S. intelligence officials are investigating whether Russia helped Iran target secret CIA facilities in the Gulf by providing intelligence, targeting data or enhanced drone technology, Reuters reported. The inquiry remains ongoing, and officials have not reached a firm conclusion.
At least two CIA sites were struck in March, including the agency’s station inside the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and another facility in eastern Iraq. Sources declined to disclose the exact number or locations of the sites targeted, saying only that more than one but fewer than a dozen facilities were involved.
An internal Western intelligence assessment concluded that Russia likely played a role in the attacks. Two Western officials briefed on the intelligence said the strike on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh involved two Shahed drones enhanced with Russian technology.
Russia is also suspected of helping Iran improve the accuracy of its Shahed-136 drones by supplying the Kometa-M satellite-navigation system. Experts say the Russian system is significantly more accurate and harder to jam than Iran’s domestically produced navigation technology.
U.S. analysts are separately examining whether Iran received Russian targeting data for the Riyadh strike. Some officials cautioned that Iran may have been aiming more broadly at the embassy and struck the CIA station by chance, while others said few countries besides Russia would have both the capability and the incentive to provide such sensitive intelligence.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
