Iran Blast May Have Hit Missile Base (UPDATED)

According to several sources, including this from the AP, the explosion in Iran may have been a bigger deal than first reported:

An Iranian exile group claimed Saturday that a blast near Tehran hit a missile base run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, disputing the Iranian government’s account that it occurred at an ammunition depot.

Former Mujahedin-e Khalq 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. The group, also known as the MEK, has in the past disclosed the sites of several key Iranian nuclear installations as well as details of their operations.

Jafarzadeh, now an author and commentator critical of Tehran’s clerical regime, said the Modarres Garrison belongs to the IGRC’s missile unit and the blasts “resulted from the explosion of IRGC missiles

The often over-heated Debka has more:

No ordinary blast at Shahryar IRGC base
Brig. Hassan Moghadam, head of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) missile development and sections of its nuclear program, was killed in one of the two consecutive explosions that hit two IRGC bases 46 kilometers west of Tehran Saturday, Nov. 12. The official fatality figure is 32. Fourteen hours after explosions blasts could still be heard and fires raged. DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report the bases are located in Malard, a town in the Shahryar district. The Moadarres facility was the first to be hit, while the second and bigger blast occurred at Amir-al-Mo’menin.

Their force was such that the Iranian Red Crescent rushed 45 ambulances to the two facilities plus 23 buses converted to first-aid vehicles and a helicopter to evacuate the critically injured.However, only six rescue workers were given access to the Moadarres base and none were permitted to enter to enter Amir-al-Mo’menin because of the facility’s sensitivity.

Debka adds that foreign scientists and engineers may have been among the injured, something Iran wishes to keep silent. Who knows?

UPDATE: Ultra-liberal Seattle blogger Richard Silverstein is creating quite the stir in Israel with his assertion that the Mossad, working with the MEK, is behind the explosion. Silverstein has broken stories before by circumventing the Israeli censors.