Huge explosion at Iranian missile base kills top general

Iran claims the explosion was accidental but is there more to this? Full text at link.

A massive explosion at an Iranian military base on Saturday killed Major General Hassan Moghaddam and 16 soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp. While Tehran dismissed the blast as an accident, indications have already emerged that it was an act of sabotage carried out by Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.

Moghaddam, who was trained in China and North Korea, has been described in Iran as the architect of the country’s ballistic missile program. The Alghadir base, at which the explosion occurred, housed Iran’s Shehab-3 missiles, which are capable of reaching Israel. Such was the scale of the blast that it was heard 40 kilometres away in Tehran.

As is its practice, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the explosion. The Israeli media, however, pointed to the possible involvement of Mossad. The Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported that “some assessments” indicated that the blast was “the result of a military operation based on intelligence information.”

While admitting nothing, Israeli Defence Secretary Ehud Barak obliquely hinted that more acts of sabotage were to come. “I don’t know the extent of the explosion. But it would be desirable if they multiply,” he said on Sunday

. A Western intelligence source told Time magazine: “Don’t believe the Iranians that it was an accident.” The official insisted that Mossad was responsible for the explosion as part of an ongoing covert campaign against Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. “There are more bullets in the magazine,” the official said.