US Probes Possible Russian Role After Iran Bombs CIA Gulf Facilities

WASHINGTON/RIYADH: Iranian drones slammed into CIA facilities across the Gulf, and now U.S. intelligence officials are chasing an uncomfortable question did Russia help Tehran pick those targets? Four people with knowledge of the intelligence picture say analysts are looking into whether Moscow passed along targeting data or drone technology that made the strikes possible.

Iran Strike CIA Facilities

Investigators haven't reached a final verdict on Russian targeting support for this specific campaign. But sources point to the strikes' precision and Russia's long track record of backing Iran's weapons programs as reasons the theory won't go away.

Reuters and other outlets have already reported extensive drone and military cooperation between Russia and Iran, including Russian targeting support for broader attacks on American positions across the Gulf. The newly disclosed development is more specific: intelligence agencies are examining whether that same assistance extended to attacks on CIA facilities.

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Iran hit at least two CIA facilities in March. One operated inside the U.S. embassy compound in Riyadh, where drones struck the site directly. A separate attack hit another CIA facility in eastern Iraq. Some sources said additional CIA locations also came under attack, but they did not disclose where or how many.

A memo prepared by a Western intelligence agency reportedly concluded that Russia likely played a role in targeting regional CIA facilities, according to an official who had reviewed the document. The official declined to identify the agency behind the assessment.

Two Western officials briefed on the intelligence believe a pair of Russian-upgraded Shahed drones carried out the Riyadh strike. The first Shahed drone punched a hole through a weak point in the embassy wall. The second flew straight through that opening and detonated inside the compound. Nobody died, and no injuries came out of it.

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Drone and military cooperation between Russia and Iran is not new the two countries have built a close strategic partnership over several years. But directly targeting CIA facilities marks a different kind of escalation, one that suggests Moscow will go further to disrupt American operations while Washington struggles to contain the widening conflict with Iran.

Concerns about possible Russian targeting support intensified this past weekend, after Iran fired ballistic missiles into army barracks at a U.S. base in Jordan and killed two American soldiers.

The White House referred questions to the CIA, which declined to comment. Iran's UN mission, the Russian Defense Ministry and Saudi officials all stayed silent when reporters asked for a response.

According to one source, Russia has helped Iran improve the accuracy and resilience of its Shahed-136 drones by supplying the Kometa-M satellite navigation system a system experts describe as more precise and harder to jam than Iran's existing navigation systems. Analysts suspect Iran flew that same upgraded Shahed hardware into Riyadh.