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| WATCH: Explosion rocks Iran's Bandar Abbas port near IRGC base, | ||||
| 2025-04-26 | ||||
| [Jpost] The explosion reportedly occurred near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base, Army Radio reported. A large explosion rocked Shahid Rajaee port in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday. At least 516 people were injured and rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, and it is unclear whether there are fatalities, Reuters reported. The explosion reportedly occurred near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base, Army Radio reported. The IDF has denied any involvement in the explosion, Maariv reported, citing sources within the military.
"The source of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area. We are currently evacuating and transferring the injured to medical centers," a local crisis management official told state TV. Reuters said that efforts were ongoing to extinguish a significant fire, with the port's customs saying that trucks were being evacuated from the area and that the container yard where the explosion occurred likely contained "dangerous goods and chemicals."
Oil facilities were not affected by the blast as the National Iranian Petroleum Refining and Distribution Company issued a statement saying, "The explosion and fire in Shahid Rajaee Port have no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes, and oil pipelines related to this company." The large blast shattered windows within a radius of several kilometers, Iranian media said, with footage shared online showing a mushroom cloud forming following the explosion.
The customs office at the port said in a statement carried by state TV that the blast probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazmat and chemical materials storage depot. “The cause of the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers,” Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management organization, told Iran’s ILNA news agency. In March, the port took in a shipment of “sodium perchlorate rocket fuel,” the private security firm Ambrey said. The fuel is part of a shipment from China by two vessels to Iran, first reported in January by the Financial Times. The fuel was going to be used to replenish Iran’s missile stocks, which had been depleted by its direct attacks on Israel during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “The fire was reportedly the result of improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles,” Ambrey said. Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press put one of the vessels believed to be carrying the chemical in the vicinity in March, as Ambrey said. Iran hasn’t acknowledged taking the shipment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. It is unclear why Iran would not have moved the chemicals from the port, particularly after the Beirut port blast in 2020, in which more than 200 people were killed in a chemical explosion. However, Israel has targeted Iranian missile sites where Tehran uses industrial mixers to create solid fuel, including during its response to a massive Iranian missile barrage launched at Israel last October. There were no immediate allegations of blame issued by Iran against external actors. Related: Shahid Rajaee port: 2020-05-28 Israeli cyber chief: Our water facilities were attacked, cyber winter is coming Shahid Rajaee port: 2020-05-21 Israel braces for Iranian cyberattack after reportedly targeting strategic port Shahid Rajaee port: 2020-05-20 Israel carried out a cyberattack on Iran's Shahid Rajaee port on May 9 as retribution for Iran's cyberattack on its water infrastructure | ||||
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #9 tw: I sent that one to you via email before I knew where the explosion took place. I just changed phones, so I'm a little fuzzy on how to get the links out. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2025-04-26 21:11 |
| #8 Very dramatic, Snowy Thing. Why would China listen to Israel about anything, Walking Unvaxed? They are too big and too far away for Israel to harm, and since Israel did not give China Haifa port to run, their trade is not significant for either party, as far as I am aware. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-04-26 20:41 |
| #7 (By which I meant embedding from twitter.) |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2025-04-26 18:23 |
#6 Let's see if this works.
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| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2025-04-26 18:22 |
| #5 You would think Israel would have something to say to China for rearming Iran. |
| Posted by: The Walking Unvaxed 2025-04-26 13:40 |
| #4 You’re on a roll today, SteveS. Odd that it’s the same port that received an IDF cyberattack in 2020… But the IDF says it wasn’t them, which leaves only groups like the Sunni rebels of Sistan&Baluchestan province, ISIS in Iran, or Inshallah itself. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-04-26 12:50 |
| #3 "Who knew it could explode? The containers were marked INFLAMMABLE." |
| Posted by: SteveS 2025-04-26 12:24 |
| #2 Massive explosion rocks Iran as four are killed and more than 500 injured with blast blamed on shipment of ballistic missile fuel |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-04-26 12:05 |
| #1 It's Trump's tariffs in action. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-26 11:08 |