Satellite image: Iran blast struck by suspected missile site

AP ^ | 6/26/2020 | Jon Gambrell

[Roman_War_Criminal]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An explosion that rattled Iran’s capital came from an area in its eastern mountains that analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites, satellite photographs showed Saturday.

What exploded in the incident early Friday that sent a massive fireball into the sky near Tehran remains unclear, as does the cause of the blast.

The unusual response of the Iranian government in the aftermath of the explosion, however, underscores the sensitive nature of an area near where international inspectors believe the Islamic Republic conducted high-explosive tests two decades ago for nuclear weapon triggers.

The blast shook homes, rattled windows and lit up the horizon early Friday in the Alborz Mountains. State TV later aired a segment from what it described as the site of the blast.

One of its journalists stood in front of what appeared to be large, blackened gas cylinders, though the camera remained tightly focused and did not show anything else around the site. Defense Ministry spokesman Davood Abdi blamed the blast on a leaking gas he did not identify and said no one was killed in the explosion.

Abdi described the site as a “public area,” raising the question of why military officials and not civilian firefighters would be in charge. The state TV report did not answer that.

[D_Idaho]

Interesting bio. Did he write it himself?

[SuperLuminal]

Testing continues...
Good to know that American taxpayer's money is being spent productively...

[Charles Martel]

Netanyahu, you magnificent bastard!

[Secret Agent Man]

allegedly struck by possible missile-like object

i’m writing like media does a crime story

[Georgia Girl 2]

Mossad strikes again. 😆

[Tucker39]

I know you believe you understand what you think I said; but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.😇

[BeauBo]

From Jerusalem Post: "The Khojir area houses a facility for making surface to surface missiles. These may be precision guided munitions that are the kind trafficked to Hezbollah."

The Portland Press Herald reports "The gas storage area sits near what analysts describe as Iran’s Khojir missile facility. The explosion appears to have struck a facility for the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group, which makes solid-propellant rockets, said Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies identified Khojir as the “site of numerous tunnels, some suspected of use for arms assembly.” Large industrial buildings at the site visible from satellite photographs also suggest missile assembly being conducted there.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency says Iran overall has the largest underground facility program in the Middle East.

Such sites “support most facets of Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities, including the operational force and the missile development and production program,” the DIA said in 2019.

Iranian officials themselves also identified the site as being in Parchin, home to a military base where the International Atomic Energy Agency previously said it suspects Iran conducted tests of explosive triggers that could be used in nuclear weapons. Iran long has denied seeking nuclear weapons, though the IAEA previously said Iran had done work in “support of a possible military dimension to its nuclear program” that largely halted in late 2003."

Where are the close up satellite images of the site?

Published photos from before the explosion showed more detail. Maybe Western Intelligence is waiting for clean up to erase the indications of what occurred.

Best to just accept the official position:

[piasa]

Explosion at Suspected Missile Site in Iran

Or,

Iranian Aerospace Engineers Have A Blast

[BobL]

“Here’s the guy who wrote it. I think he needs some continuing education courses.”

He definitely has that gay look, straight into the camera, really serious (as if interested in the photographer) - but still, given his background, I think he’s normal.

[Nachoman]

“Abdul, I told you not to smoke back there!”

[Flaming Conservative]

The editor? I thought columnists rarely wrote their own headlines.

[Grampa Dave]

Dang, two of my rare headaches in one day and basically from one post.

[ptsal]

Former proof reading crew now taking computer coding lessons.

[BatGuano]

There are “the usual suspects,” in the missile world.
In this case, “allied forces could be rounded up!”

But the camel drivers are unable to whip the stupid beasts enough to catch those go fast guys.

[Tucker39]

All in good fun, Grampa. In a former life I was sitting in a CEO’s office and noticed that saying, framed, hanging on his wall. The minute I saw it I said “Communication!” under my breath. I realized it explains why so many people don’t understand one another. I think the reason is, so many don’t LISTEN worth a bleep.
Blessings.

[Robert A Cook PE]

If I were Iran, I would work towards the more reliable, more easily built U235 gun device, not a complex Pu239 implosion device requiring dozens of simultaneous equally powerful explosions.

Image of this site id very different from the ammo dump/bomb dump complex discussed yesterday near Tehran

[Oscar in Batangas]

This may explain why the Jerusalem Post got the headlines out way ahead of nearly everyone else???

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3859228/posts

[Bikkuri]

I had to read the title a few times, scratching my head...
Yoda, he is not...

[cloudmountain]

For those of us not “in the know” of insider jargon, does your “K.S.A.” refer to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
I assume it has no relation to anything in Iron.

Yes, that's it.
The K.S.A. is this country's only friend in that part of the world. The gigantic petroleum company was ARAMCO, the Arabian-American Oil Company, founded in the 1920's by four big American oil companies...nothing whatsoever to do with our own government.
By the early 1980's the King of Saudi Arabia BOUGHT back and bought out ARAMCO. The king in the 1920's had sold his country's petroleum and natural gas wells to the four big American oil companies. Now, the name of the company is Saudi Aramco and owned 100% by King Mohammed bin Salman.
The King had BOUGHT the companies so the wealthy Saudi families wouldn't fight over it.
American engineers still work there. Saudi Aramco pays the American engineers a TON of money to work and live in the K.S.A.
American engineers pay NO federal income tax on the first $80K they earn over there. THAT is the "carrot" the company offers them to live over there. Also, Americans pay no state income tax if their state has it.

My husband and I were there for five long years. We made a TON of $$$ and we had the opportunity to travel all over the world.
We went to places that we KNEW we would never see when we returned home: Egypt (twice), Kenya, China, India, most of southeast Asia...lots of countries.

My husband called that experience an "adventure of a lifetime" for us. He was right.

No relation to IRON...huh?

[SunkenCiv]

Orrrrr, they could abandon their weapons research and focus on improving life in Iran. Good way to start that second step would be for all the mullahs and their fanatic nitwit followers to self-immolate.

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3859760/posts?page=34#34