Bidganeh arsenal explosion was a large explosion that occurred about 13:30 local time, 12 November 2011 in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

's Moddares garrison missile base. The facility is also referred to as Shahid Modarres missile base,Mysterious explosions pose dilemma for Iranian leaders
. ''The Washington Post''. 23 November 2011 and the Alghadir missile base. Seventeen members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in this incident,Iran exile group claims blast near Tehran hit closely guarded missile base
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. 13 November 2011. including Major General Hassan Moqaddam, described as "a key figure in Iran's missile programme".Iranian missile expert killed in explosion
''The Guardian'', 13 November 2011 The

Iranian Revolutionary Guard The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

garrison is located in a village near Shahriar city (Tehran Province) about 30 miles to the West of Iran's capital of

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. Residents of

Karaj Karaj ( fa, کرج, ) is the capital of Alborz Province, Iran, and effectively a satellite city of Tehran. Although the county hosts a population around 1.97 million, as recorded in the 2016 census, most of the county is rugged mountain. The urb ...

heard the sound of the explosion and breaking glass in buildings that were near the scene. Initial reports indicated that the explosion happened at a

CNG Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

station, but this was later denied. Revolutionary Guard officials stated the accident occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions. Officials have denied the possibility of any foreign sabotage in the explosion despite the "fivefold increase in explosions" since 2010 at Iranian refineries and gas pipelines reported by industry experts. According to

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, senior defense officials indicated that the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

believed the explosion was an industrial accident which took place while mixing volatile fuel for a large ballistic missile. Commercial satellite imagery captured on November 22 showed extensive damage at the military base and some buildings appeared to have been completely destroyed.

Possible Israeli sabotage

According to an unnamed Western official quoted by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine, the blast was no accident and there are "more bullets in the magazine", implying the explosion was deliberate. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was asked about the explosion and replied, "May there be more like it."

References

{{Iran–Israel proxy conflict Explosions in 2011 Explosions in Iran History of Tehran Province 2011 industrial disasters 2011 in Iran Iran–Israel proxy conflict

Possible Israeli sabotage

See also

References