An explosion at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military site in eastern Tehran on Thursday resulted in the death of a naval forces member and injuries to at least ten firefighters, according to Iranian state media. The regime’s official narrative claims the blast was triggered by a fire inside a shipping container, but key details, including the exact location and cause of the explosion, remain suspiciously undisclosed.
Tehran’s fire department spokesperson, Jalal Maleki, stated that the fire broke out around 1:30 PM local time. As firefighters attempted to contain the blaze, a sudden explosion occurred, allegedly due to trapped heat and combustible fumes. While state media initially reported that all injured personnel were firefighters, official sources later adjusted the narrative, vaguely acknowledging the involvement of an IRGC naval staffer, identified as Mostafa Abdollahi, who reportedly died “during a mission.”
Notably, the IRGC has refused to disclose the precise site of the explosion, a pattern consistent with previous incidents in Iran’s military facilities. Eastern Tehran is home to multiple IRGC bases and command centers, where past explosions have been linked to covert military activity and suspected foreign sabotage.
#Iran News in Brief
On Tuesday evening, two people were killed and several more injured following an #explosion that took place at the Hasheminejad compound of the Iranian regime’s #IRGC in Damghan City, Semnan province.https://t.co/d5NxSFRfE5 pic.twitter.com/gVaHrBteHD— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 2, 2023
While the regime presents the incident as a mere workplace accident, Iran’s history of concealing security breaches raises doubts. In 2010, the IRGC downplayed an explosion at a missile base in Khorramabad that killed 18 personnel, only to later admit the magnitude of the event.
On November 12, 2011, a massive explosion at an IRGC missile facility near Malard, west of Tehran, killed Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the regime’s highest-ranking missile commander. Moghaddam, trained in China and North Korea, was reportedly overseeing the transfer of missiles when the blast occurred. The explosion, which came amid heightened international scrutiny of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs, dealt a major blow to the clerical regime’s military capabilities. The IRGC attributed the incident to an accident.
The clerical regime’s continued suppression of critical details only fuels speculation over what truly happened at the IRGC site. Given its history of obfuscation, it remains unclear whether this explosion was an internal accident or yet another covert strike exposing the regime’s military vulnerabilities.