Mystery explosion in Tehran gives rise to security clampdown

But regime denies latest in series of explosions and fires at army, nuclear and industrial facilities

‘It is too early to make any judgment and security bodies are probing every detail’

IRANIAN state media reported an explosion in western Tehran early yesterday, the latest in a string of mysterious recent incidents.

But it was swiftly denied by a senior official in that part of the city. State broadcaster IRIB said power was cut in several western suburbs near where online reports said an explosion had occurred. It gave no further information about the cause or whether there were casualties.

Leila Vaseghi, the governor of Qods city, 16 miles west of central Tehran, told the semi-official Fars news agency there had been no explosion but admitted there had been a power cut that lasted about five minutes, caused, she said, by works at a hospital.

It was unclear if the incident had taken place in Qods, as residents contacted by Reuters said they had heard no explosion.

There are said to be several military facilities in the area, which may have been the target of saboteurs.

A series of fires and explosions have been reported near Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities in recent weeks. Officials said that some were industrial accidents.

A bright flash lit up the night sky over Tehran early on June 26, apparently near the Parchin military site.

Fars news agency later said a fire there had been caused by “an industrial gas tank explosion” near a facility belonging to the defence ministry.

A spokesman told state TV that the fire was quickly controlled and there were no casualties. But after a similar unexplained fire at the Natanz nuclear plant in central Isfahan province on July 2, officials were forced to admit there had been significant damage to the country’s primary uranium enrichment facility.

A spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council of Iran said the “cause of the accident” at the centrifuge assembly plant had been identified, adding any more information would be released later “due to security considerations”.

The New York Times reported a Middle Eastern intelligence official and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard

Corps commander saying the Natanz incident was caused by an explosive. Yossi Cohen, head of Israeli intelligence, was later accused of leaking information that Mossad planted a bomb that caused the damage.

Yesterday, Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said Iran would retaliate if international sabotage operation had caused the explosion in Natanz.

“It is too early to make any judgment and security bodies are probing every detail,” Fars reported him as saying.