Blast at Revolutionary Guard base kills (Iran)

Washington Post ^ | Saturday, November 12, 4:30 PM | Kay Armin Serjoie and Thomas Erdbrink

[Pan_Yan]

TEHRAN — An explosion at a Revolutionary Guard Corps weapons depot near the Iranian capital killed 17 soldiers Saturday, Iranian state TV reported a Guard spokesman as saying.

Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif told the semi-official Fars news agency that an earlier announcement putting the death toll at 27 had been readjusted following the discovery of a “misprint.”

Firemen from several cities rushed to the scene to control a raging fire ignited by the explosion, which was felt by many people in Tehran, 30 miles to the east. Witnesses reported a thick black column of smoke rising from the site.

...

The blast followed a sharp increase in recent years in explosions at industrial sites, key gas pipelines and Revolutionary Guard bases, which some here attribute to sabotage by the United States.

In October 2010, 18 servicemen were killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot on a Guard Corps base near the western city of Khorramabad.

In May, a blast at an oil refinery during a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad killed four people.

[Pan_Yan]

I keep this article handy and think about it whenever stuff like this happens.

[verum ago]

Felt by people 30 mi away? I'm gonna guess they mean 'heard,' unless there's a serious case of atmospheric focusing. Whether this was a work accident or an attack of some sort, I think I'll enjoy a little schadenfreude either way. And keep sipping at my 32 oz High Life. That's and the 24 oz Coors I had earlier come to a good 2.8 oz of Sharia-banned ethanol-y goodness, while I watch college football that's probably 'hateful to Allah.' Especially the cheerleaders. Life is good at the moment.

Read that article you linked to. Not sure a weapons depot counts as 'energy infrastructure,' but here's hoping some sort of anti-regime, ah, 'activist' infiltrator in the Revolutionary Guards 'accidentally' lost the pin to a grenade and thought the safest to place to dispose of it was in the middle of a bunch of crates of explody stuff :)

Hmmm, maybe they'll have trouble handling some nuclear material too. I'll have to have beer and chips for that. And cheerleaders.

Heh.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Debka is saying that the Iranians were attempting to install a nuclear warhead onto a SHAHAB-3 missile. If that was the case, the explosion was the high explosive in the warhead, likely set off by some sabotage worked into its systems.

http://www.debka.com/article/21474/

More on the SHAHAB-3:

http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/militarysumfolder/shahab-3.html

[Surrounded_too]

Felt is not out of the question at all.

A gas explosion at a construction site in Connecticut was felt a long way.

It was a gas explosion.

[oldbrowser]

Could it be those pesky UAVs?

[DJ MacWoW]

Stop Goofing Off And Donate

Click The Pic

[SamKeck]

Stuxnet strikes again.

[JSteff]

F.A.E. effect.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Felt by people 30 mi away? I'm gonna guess they mean 'heard,' unless there's a serious case of atmospheric focusing

Perhaps you've had too much sauce to comprehend.

It's called seismic.

Oklahoma City bombing felt 55 miles away

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Iran exile group claims blast near Tehran hit closely guarded missile base: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts-law/iran-exile-group-claims-blast-near-tehran-hit-closely-guarded-missile-base/2011/11/12/gIQArKv4FN_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop