Mysterious Explosion in Iran Blamed on Israel

September 27, 2023

by: Kate Norman

Wednesday, 27 September 2023 | On Monday night, a mysterious explosion struck near a city in western Iran, close to the site of a missile production base, according to official Iranian media.

Shortly before 10:00 p.m., residents of the city of Khorramabad rushed into the streets when they felt “strong shocks accompanied by a terrible sound” that caused “tremors in parts of the city…causing panic and disrupting the peace of the people at night,” the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

What makes this explosion significant is its location. Just 35 kilometers (22 mi.) away from the city lies the Imam Ali base, where former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami commissioned the production of the regime’s Shahab-3 medium-range missiles, the Times of Israel reported. These missiles have a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,243 mi.), putting them within striking range of the Jewish state.

Tasnim talked to local experts, who determined that the tremor was not caused by an earthquake, and thus “the occurrence of the explosion became more prominent in the minds of the people,” the agency wrote.

Unofficial reports speculated that the explosion was caused by attack drones, naming Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, as the possible culprit.

Erfad Fard, a Washington DC-based researcher and analyst of the Counter-Terrorism Center, suggested that the explosion targeted the missile base’s fuel storage facility following boasts by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that it had made missile advancements.

Striking the site disrupted the fuel storage facility, Fard wrote on X (formerly Twitter), affecting the operational capability of the base by hampering its ability “to effectively deploy and sustain missile systems.”

Furthermore, Fard asserted that the operation showcased the Mossad’s “technological prowess & capacity for conducting covert operations within Iran. Drones provide a discreet means of delivering targeted strikes, minimizing the risk of exposure to Israeli operatives.”

The explosion also came hours after the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces boasted while addressing a military ceremony that Iran’s formidable military power was so great that “enemies would not even imagine the possibility of an attack, let alone an act of aggression,” Tasnim reported.

Posted on September 27, 2023

Source: (Bridges for Peace, September 27, 2023)

Photo Credit: Hossein Velayati/wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia