A massive explosion at a military arms depot near the Iranian capital Tehran on Saturday killed 17 Revolutionary Guards and wounded 15 others, a spokesman told the semi-official Fars news agency. Among those killed was Hasan Moghaddam, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander. The explosion occurred just days after the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency published a scathing report about Iran's nuclear program and at a time of mounting tension with Israel and the West, but officials said the blast was an accident that happened as troops moved munitions at a base in Bidganeh, near the town of Shahriar, some 45 km (28 miles) west of the capital. The explosion shook homes and rattled windows for miles in area. "Today at 1:30 p.m., an explosion occurred in one of the Revolutionary Guard bases while a consignment of explosive devices was being moved out from the arsenal," Revolutionary Guard spokesman Ramezan Sharif told state television. "Some munitions in the arsenal exploded, which created a terrifying sound," he said. Residents in western suburbs of Tehran told Reuters they had felt the blast, and some assumed it was a moderate earthquake. The explosion started a fire at the base that raged for hours. Surrounding streets were closed and reporters were kept away from the scene. Some media reported that there had been two explosions and Mahmoud Mozafar, the head of Iran's Red Crescent organization, said there was a risk of further blasts. Mozafar told the Mehr news agency that only six paramedics had been allowed into the Amir Al-Momenin military base and that thick smoke was hampering the rescue operation. There were no reports linking the blast to any air strike or other attack, despite escalating tensions in recent weeks between Iran and Israel and the U.S., which have not ruled out attacking the country's nuclear facilities if Tehran continues to work toward acquiring nuclear weapons. Sharif denied what he said was speculation in the Western media that the military base was linked to Iran's nuclear program. "This blast is not related to any nuclear tests that some foreign media have reported," he told Mehr. Tehran denies Western accusations that its nuclear program is military in nature, accusations that were given credence by the most detailed report yet on the program from the IAEA this week. Any responsible government in the world needs to draw the obvious conclusions from the IAEA report," Netanyahu told the cabinet. "The international community must stop Iran's race to arm itself with nuclear weapons, a race that endangers the peace of the entire world."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday again urged the international community to halt Iran's nuclear program.
"Today, the cabinet will receive a briefing on the IAEA report," Netanyahu said. "This is a comprehensive document that strengthens the claims by leading countries in the world and Israel that Iran is systematically developing nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, an exiled Iranian dissident group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK, meanwhile, claimed that the blast hit a missile base run by the Revolutionary Guard, and not an ammunition depot.
Former MEK spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh, citing what he called reliable sources inside Iran, said that the explosion hit the Modarres Garrison of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps west of Tehran.
Jafarzadeh said in an e-mail that the Modarres Garrison belongs to the Revolutionary Guard's missile unit and the blasts "resulted from the explosion of IRGC missiles." He did not say what he believed triggered the explosion.
The MEK in the past has disclosed the sites of several key Iranian nuclear installations as well as details of their operations, although their reports have not always been reliable.
The MEK fought the Tehran regime on the side of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. But the group says it has renounced violence and some former senior government officials and members of Congress are calling for the Obama administration to remove the group from the list.
Last year, on Oct. 12, a similar blast at a Revolutionary Guard base killed and wounded several soldiers in Khoramabad, 500 km (300 miles) west of Tehran. The base was used for the development and storage of Iran's long-range missile, the Shahab-3. The Shahab-3 has a range of more than 1,200 km, putting Israel within range of Iran's strike capability.
Officials in Tehran called the event an accident as well, though media outlets speculated that the explosion was not a coincidence. One month prior to the explosion, during a military parade commemorating the Iran-Iraq war, an explosion killed more than 10 and wounded more than 80 others. In 2007, another explosion took place in an Iranian military installation near Tehran, where Iran was reportedly testing rockets that could carry nuclear warheads.