Tyler Durden / ZeroHedge.com & Saeed Kamali Dehghan / Guardian – 2011-12-04 00:42:51
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/australian-reports-second-explosion-iranian-city-isfahan
The Australian Reports Second Explosion In Iranian City Of Isfahan
Tyler Durden / ZeroHedge.com
(December 2, 2011) — While this story has not been caught by any of the major wires, The Australian’s Jerusalem correspondent Sheera Frankel reports something quite disturbing:
“All eyes on Israel after second Iranian blast. Clouds of smoke billowed above the city of Isfahan — evidence that the latest strike against Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program had hit its target.”
We will report more if this story is confirmed by any other news agencies because, if true, it means that, at this point, things behind the scenes are no longer happening in the shadows.
As a reminder, from Monday: Satellite Image Confirms Iranian Missile Base Was Destroyed.
Today’s curious news report posted by Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars, which was promptly muted, only to be republished by Israel’s Haaretz, of a major explosion near the Iranian city of Isfahan, has left many scratching their heads.
As Haaretz reports: “Speaking with Fars news agency, Isfahan’s deputy mayor confirmed the reports and said the authorities are investigating the matter. However, after the incident was reported in Israel, the report was taken off the Fars website.” Which led many to wonder: is this a real event or merely a provocation designed to make Iranians believe they were attacked? Further complicating matters is the just released news from Washington Post which shows satellite images of the aftermath of another explosion in Iran, this time from two weeks ago at an Iranian missile base.
The image of the compound, near the city of Malard, doesn’t provide any clues as to what caused the Nov. 12 explosion, which Iranian authorities described as an “accident” involving the transport of ammunition. But it does make clear that the facility has been effectively destroyed.
Paul Brannan, a senior analyst for the Institute for Science and International Security, which specializes in the study of nuclear weapons programs, said it’s impossible to tell from the image whether the blast was caused by sabotage, as has has been speculated in this explosion and others at transport facilities, oil refineries and military bases in Iran.
Brannan said ISIS had recently learned from “knowledgable officials” that the blast had occurred just as Iran had achieved a milestone in the development of a new missile and may have been performing a “volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site.”
So the question stands: is Iran being systematically attacked with the news being covered up for fear that it can not retaliate and thus seem weak; is it being sabotaged on a weekly basis, or is everything just one big media disinformation campaign designed to provoke Iran to lash out? We will probably know very soon, today’s “oversold” and now completely disconnected from reality rally notwithstanding.
Iran: Explosion in Isfahan Reported
Saeed Kamali Dehghan / Guardian
(November 28, 2011) — Conflicting reports have emerged from Iran over an explosion heard in the central city of Isfahan, close to the country’s sensitive nuclear facilities. Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency quoted a judiciary official in Isfahan, saying that an explosion had been heard.
“We heard a sound similar to that of an explosion but we have received no reports about its causes and the consequences so far,” said Gholamreza Ansari, in quotes carried by ISNA. He said the explosion did not appear to be of any significance.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency was one of the first media organisations to report the explosion, saying it was heard at 2.40pm local time (1110 GMT). Fars quoted the deputy governor, Mehdi Ismaili, as confirming a sound that the news agency reported was loud enough to be heard across the city. The agency, however, removed the article from its website sometime later.
Ismaili then spoke to another semi-official agency, Mehr, denying his quotes as reported by Fars. “I have heard no sound whatsoever in Isfahan,” he said. Ismaili also told the Irna state news agency that he had not spoken to Fars in the first place.
Several residents of Isfahan told the Guardian that they had heard a loud blast. One said that it rattled the windows of their home.
Isfahan is home to Iran’s uranium conversion facility (UCF), which operates under IAEA surveillance. Iran’s main uranium enrichment facilities are situated in the city of Natanz to the north-east of Isfahan, where many of the country’s centrifuges are installed. In recent years, Iran’s nuclear activities at Natanz have been at the centre of an international dispute.
Earlier this month, a huge explosion at a missile base in the west of Tehran killed more than 30 members of Iran’s revolutionary guards, including Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a senior commander described as the architect of the country’s missile programme.
In recent years, Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes have experienced a series of setbacks in what has been widely seen as a covert war against the Islamic republic.
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