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Israel strikes drug factory in Iran, says it made fentanyl for chemical weapons R&D

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yesterday

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday it had carried out a strike on a civilian factory in Iran that was producing the synthetic opioid fentanyl on behalf of the Islamic Republic’s chemical weapons program.

A statement from the IDF said that the fentanyl, which is at least 50 times stronger than heroin, was being transferred to the Iranian defense body tasked with producing chemical weapons to be used in “the research and development of chemical weapons.”

The statement said the facility “was used as a central supplier of fentanyl to the SPND organization, which is entrusted with the development of chemical weapons for the Iranian terror regime.”

The strike was one of a series of recent Israeli attacks targeting top Islamic Republic officials and the regime’s key infrastructure, as US President Donald Trump suggested that the war may end soon. The military said that by Wednesday, it would complete its strikes on the main components of Iran’s military production industry.

The IDF said in its statement that the fentanyl plant was one facet of that industry.

“The attack harmed the chemical weapons production capabilities of the Iranian terror regime,” the IDF said, adding that prior to the strike, it took unspecified means “to reduce potential harm to civilians as much as possible.”

The pharmaceutical company, Tofigh Daru Research & Engineering Company, is owned by the Social Security Investment Company, a state-run holding firm. On LinkedIn, it says it develops and produces active pharmaceutical ingredients “in the anticancer, narcotics, [and] cardiovascular to immunomodulatory segments.”

Iran acknowledged the strike on the factory, but insisted it only supplied “hospital drugs” used in medical operations, referring to the factory as belonging to “one of the largest companies producing anti-cancer, anaesthetic and specialized medicines.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted a picture of the bombed-out factory in Tehran, writing on X: “The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies.”

The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies. Their intentions are clear. What they've gotten wrong is that they're not dealing with defenseless Palestinian civilians. Our Powerful Armed Forces will severely punish aggressors. pic.twitter.com/wh2FZUldR7 — Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 31, 2026

The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies.

Their intentions are clear.

What they've gotten wrong is that they're not dealing with defenseless Palestinian civilians. Our Powerful Armed Forces will severely punish aggressors. pic.twitter.com/wh2FZUldR7

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 31, 2026

Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug — which has helped fuel the US opioid epidemic and which has been a focus of Trump’s anti-drug efforts — can be fatal.

Iran has long faced chronic shortages of medicines, partly due to UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. The sanctions have crippled essential trade services such as banking, while scaring off drug companies from doing business in Iran, even though humanitarian products are exempt.

The Islamic Republic relies for the most part on its own domestic production, while importing limited quantities of ingredients and specialized drugs from countries such as India and Japan.

IDF: All ‘critical’ assets of Iran arms industry hit by Wednesday

The IDF had said Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force would complete targeting all of the “critical” assets of Iran’s military production industries by the following day, Wednesday.

The defense industry of Iran is extensive, with numerous military bodies and private companies manufacturing weapon systems or components, including ballistic missiles, air defenses, naval weapons, cyber capabilities, and even spy satellites.

The IDF said that by Wednesday, all of the key sites used to develop weapons that threaten Israel — around 70% of Iran’s military production industry — would have been targeted.

Other, less critical military production sites would potentially be targeted in the future as well. The IDF said it would also continue strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems and military officers, as well as targets that cause economic damage to the Iranian regime.

IDF: Top engineering officer for IRGC’s Quds Force killed

The IDF said Tuesday that a top engineering officer in the Quds Force, the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been killed in an airstrike.

The IDF said the strike in Mahallat, in central Iran, killed Mahdi Vafaei, chief of engineering in the IRGC Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps.

“Throughout his 20 years as the head of the engineering branch of the corps, Vafaei advanced underground projects across Lebanon and Syria,” the military said in a statement.

The IDF said Vafaei led efforts to establish subterranean infrastructure for Hezbollah and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, “and managed dozens of underground projects in Lebanon utilized for the storage of advanced weapons.”

????ELIMINATED: Mahdi Vafaei, the Head of the Engineering Branch of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps in the Mahallat Area in Iran Vafaei advanced underground projects across Lebanon and Syria, leading efforts to establish and manage underground terrorist infrastructure sites for… — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 1, 2026

????ELIMINATED: Mahdi Vafaei, the Head of the Engineering Branch of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps in the Mahallat Area in Iran

Vafaei advanced underground projects across Lebanon and Syria, leading efforts to establish and manage underground terrorist infrastructure sites for…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 1, 2026

Meanwhile, the IRGC confirmed the killing, in a previous US-Israeli airstrike, of a brigadier general sanctioned by the US in 2025 over an international network shipping oil to China. Washington had said the revenues were used to fund terror groups in the region.

Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief Ahmad Vahidi issued a message of condolence for Jamshid Eshaghi, the head of budget and financial affairs at Iran’s armed forces general staff, a powerful military body that coordinates between the regular army and the IRGC.

Vahidi, whose predecessor was killed at the start of the conflict, said Eshaghi had been killed along with several members of his family in a US-Israeli strike, without giving a date or further details.

IDF hits regime targets; strike damages former US embassy

The IDF said Wednesday that it had completed two waves of airstrikes in Iran that morning, both of which it said hit regime infrastructure sites. The army said more details would be provided later.

Footage carried by the Mehr news agency showed the aftermath of strikes in central Tehran, with shops damaged, windows blown out and debris scattered across the area near the site.

At the same time, Iranian media reported some power outages in the capital.

Strikes early that day hit an area near the former US embassy in Tehran, damaging parts of the complex’s outer walls, an AFP journalist reported. The wall of the former embassy complex, now a museum known as the “Den of Spies,” appeared damaged in the footage.

It was not immediately clear what had been targeted in the area.

Iranian media have additionally reported that US-Israeli strikes hit steel industry complexes in central and southwest Iran.

“Initial assessments indicate massive attacks, with significant damage and destruction to production units” at the complex of the Mobarakeh Steel Company, one of Iran’s biggest, in the central province of Isfahan, Fars news agency reported, quoting a statement by the company.

It added that the fresh attacks took place on Tuesday evening, hitting the complex in Isfahan as well as one of the company’s subsidiaries, Sefid Dasht Steel, in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, which “sustained damage and losses.”

Israel had already struck the steel plant in Isfahan last week, along with a second factory near Ahvaz, with officials saying the attacks were aimed at causing major economic damage to the Iranian regime. Steel is also essential for industrial and military production, including the making of missiles, drones and ships.

Reports from Iran suggest that all three of Iran's largest steel production plants were struck in a coordinated targeted strikes. This could substantially affect the national steel industry and manufacturing pic.twitter.com/mmrnyDS8UX — Ben Tzion Macales (@BenTzionMacales) March 27, 2026

Reports from Iran suggest that all three of Iran's largest steel production plants were struck in a coordinated targeted strikes.

This could substantially affect the national steel industry and manufacturing pic.twitter.com/mmrnyDS8UX

— Ben Tzion Macales (@BenTzionMacales) March 27, 2026

Iranian media also reported that US-Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed four people and damaged a Shia Muslim mosque and religious site in northwest Iran.

State television said the building of the Grand Husseiniya, a hall for Shia gatherings and mourning ceremonies, “was damaged following the enemy’s morning attack on the Ferdowsi street” in the city of Zanjan. It added that “parts of the dome and minarets were damaged.”

The strikes killed four people and wounded 26 others in the area, according to ISNA news agency, which cited Ali Sadeghi, a provincial deputy governor.

Areas near the World Health Organization’s Tehran office were also hit by strikes on Sunday and Monday nights, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an X post on Tuesday, but he said that all “office colleagues are accounted for and none were injured.”

IAF has carried out 10,000 strikes on 4,000 targets

In total, the IAF has dropped over 16,000 bombs in Iran since the start of the war, in over 800 waves of strikes, the military said Wednesday. Over 10,000 separate strikes have been carried out on 4,000 targets.

In addition to the bombing runs themselves, the IDF said more than 2,000 separate aerial refuelings have been carried out over the skies of the Middle East since the start of the war, allowing hundreds of IAF fighter jets to operate in Iran, located over 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Israel.

The military published footage showing the Air Force’s 120th Squadron’s aerial refueling activities amid the war with Iran.

The IAF has also relied heavily on the US military’s aerial refueling capabilities, as the US military has a much larger refueling fleet. Dozens of US refueling tankers have been stationed in Israel amid the conflict.

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