At least one person died and 14 were injured in an explosion this Saturday in the port of Bandar Abbas, in the south of , a local official told Iranian news agencies. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said reports on social media claiming that a Revolutionary Guard Navy commander had been targeted in the explosion were “completely false”.
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Iranian media reported that the explosion was being investigated, but did not provide further information. Iranian authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.
In another incident, four people died after a gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz, near the border with Iraq, according to the state-run Tehran Times newspaper. No other information was immediately available.
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Two Israeli officials told Reuters that Israel was not involved in Saturday’s explosions, which come amid rising tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests and Iran’s nuclear program.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US President Donald Trump said on January 22 that an “armada” was on its way to Iran. Multiple sources said on Friday that Trump was evaluating options against Iran, including targeted strikes on security forces.
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Earlier Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused US, Israeli and European leaders of exploiting Iran’s economic problems, inciting social unrest and providing the people with the means to “destroy the nation.”
Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s most important container port, lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between the country and Oman, through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passes.
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The port suffered a major explosion last April, which killed dozens of people and injured more than a thousand. At the time, an investigation commission attributed the explosion to failures to comply with the principles of civil defense and security.
Iran has been rocked by protests that erupted in December due to economic hardship, posing one of the biggest challenges for the country’s religious rulers.
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At least 5,000 people have been killed in the protests, including 500 members of the security forces, an Iranian official told Reuters.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom and Menna Alaa El-Din in Cairo; additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington)
