NEWS: Explosion Heard Outside Iranian City, Conflicting Reports of Cause

Iranian State television is reporting that there has been a large explosion just outside the southern city of Dailam. Early reports from the media stated that it was a missile fired from a plane but this was retracted in favour of a story about a fuel tank falling from an Iranian aircraft. This report has been categorically denied by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, leaving the world with no current explanation as to what happened


The Russian embassy in Tehran has confirmed that there has been no attack on the Nucleat facility being built with Russian help in Bushehr which is 90 miles from the site of the explosion. Both Israel and the United Sytates have denied any involvement in the situation. Further reports from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard confirm that this was not an attack on Iran. Investigators are believed to be on scene now.





Eyewitnesses in the region had said that this was a missile fired from a plane, this significantly reduces the options for an explanation if they are true sightings.

It has also been revealed that Iran and Syria have formed a common front to counter any possible US or Israeli aggressions.



We'll have more as it breaks.


[edit on 16-2-2005 by Nerdling]

[edit on 16-2-2005 by SkepticOverlord]

the fuel tank was disproved aswell by the Iranians, but there have been numerous reports stating Israel would attack and the US giving them permission to attack.

Well, judging from the reaction by news organisations it seems they've had zero warning at all. If it was an American attack the news orgs are often given scoops and exclusive promises if they keep it quiet... they really have no idea whats happening...

I think its interesting to note that Sky has retracted the fuel tank story from its front page and now lead with...

BLAST NEAR NUKE PLANT

There is confusion over the cause of a blast near Iran's only nuclear plant.

hmmm

Originally posted by Nerdling
Well, judging from the reaction by news organisations it seems they've had zero warning at all. If it was an American attack the news orgs are often given scoops and exclusive promises if they keep it quiet... they really have no idea whats happening...

I think its interesting to note that Sky has retracted the fuel tank story from its front page and now lead with...

BLAST NEAR NUKE PLANT

There is confusion over the cause of a blast near Iran's only nuclear plant.

hmmm

i see what you mean,
Lets look at the facts, its Iran's only nuclear plant, likely target. This looks more like a failed attempt. The Iranians seem abit too silent about this...

hmmmm indeed.

US and Israel deny any knowledge of the explosion, they both claim they had nothing to do with it.

Irans Revolutionary Guard claim none of their planes are missing fuel tanks, and none of their pilots are responsible for firing an errant missle or dropping a bomb.

The media has done a collective about face, from missle, to gas tank, to the most generic; explosion.

We're looking at a coverup in progress here. The question that remains is, who is covering up the story, and what is the story they're covering up?

I'm going to be following this story closely, and by the way, what happened to the other thread on this? The ALERT dissapeared..

Has anyone gotten confirmation from a mod that the thread was deleted? They seem to be unusually silent on the subject.

CNN and FOX are hardly covering it when i checked the news stations on UK TV.
This has all the signs of an attack.

The attack scenario would make sense..

The first story to run is usually the right one, the one without censorship. In this case, the first story to run was a missle being fired by a plane at a target on the ground.

The missle was fired about 90 miles away from the nuke project, could it have been a threat, a signal, rather than an actual commencement of hostilities?

If I was US or Israel, I might try to bluff strong and hope Iran doesn't want to see their power plant go up in flames. On the other hand, if I wanted to take out their reactor, I would, I wouldn't just drop a dummy missle 90 miles away..

Very strange indeed, and still no word from the mods on the issue of the missing thread.

Sky news is reporting the Russians have said, there was no attack.

Sky just did a follow up on it... and they conveniently forgot to mention that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is denying all reports of a fuel tank falling.

what the hell is going on?

Flash:

Iran Official: Explosion during Dam Build.

Nothing further.

Originally posted by Nerdling
Flash:

Iran Official: Explosion during Dam Build.

Nothing further.

what?!?!

what about the plane in the sky and anti-aircraft fire?

Another interesting fact is that oil rose in price by 1 dollar a barrel when the news first came about, it appears to be settling back down now however.

An aircraft was reported by locals to be in the area at the time, but has no connection to the incident. Just dam building then, I knew it would be nothing.

Thats a selective use of info Kriz.

Locals reported seeing an aircraft fire a missile. And then they heard a very large explosion.

Originally posted by Nerdling
Thats a selective use of info Kriz.

Locals reported seeing an aircraft fire a missile. And then they heard a very large explosion.

most stations reported this, until the fuel report was released.
this is too wierd

You guys are making this story sound bigger then it is. You all are going to have a heart attack before the day is even over if you keep this up.

The interior ministry spokesman, Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, told AP: "An airplane flew over Daylam today. Minutes later, there was an explosion.

"But we have no reason to say it's a hostile attack. There is a big possibility that it was a friendly fire by mistake.

"Several such mistaken friendly fire incidents have been reported there in recent days."

from Nerdling
It has also been revealed that Iran and Syria have formed a common front to counter any possible US or Israeli aggressions.

Where in the story does it say that they are doing this to "counter any possible US or Israeli aggressions"?

However, Syria's ambassador in the US denied that the common front was an alliance against Washington.

"We are not the enemies of the United States, and we do not want to be drawn into such an enmity," Imad Moustapha told CNN.

Source

Originally posted by Nerdling
Thats a selective use of info Kriz.

Locals reported seeing an aircraft fire a missile. And then they heard a very large explosion.

Just going by what I have seen. All I saw reported is what I stated, the news I watched said nothing of a missle. So no, I was not selective in my information. Possibly news stations are wanting a war to start a little too much.

I also found it somewhat disturbing that the Iranian official originaly quoted as saying it was probably friendly fire, went on to say that there have been several friendly fire incidents in the same area over the LAST FEW DAYS.

That seems like a very strange thing to say. "Oh yeah, that was probably just a bomb falling on our own people, happens all the time, nothing to worry about."

The news is scrambling to put anything up, I've been bouncing around the various news on demand services, and they're all trying to say something about the incident, even though nobody has a clue what to say.

So now it was an explosion at a dam? I haven't found that information anywhere, where was that reported?

www.cnn.com...

www.sky.com...

Both these sites now have it that it was a fuel tank from an iranian jet that caused the explosion.

Not to worry - the spin masters are on it.

Buried in the middle of a story on US drone surveillance (posted 6 minutes ago):

Iran: U.S. Drones Spy On Nukes

In an incident on Wednesday, there were reports of anti-aircraft fire and an explosion near the town of Deilam, about 60 miles from a nuclear facility. Iranian state television later said that the explosion may have been caused by a fuel tank dropping from an Iranian plane.

6 minutes ago

www.sfexaminer.com...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian state television reported Wednesday that an explosion near the southwestern town of Deylam, about 110 miles from a nuclear facility, may have been caused by a fuel tank dropping from an Iranian plane. A government spokesman said the blast may have been caused by friendly fire.

Rescue teams were sent to the area, state-run al-Alam television said, without providing details on casualties. The network provided few details of the blast, but it said officials in the area said the cause may have been a fuel tank dropped from a plane.

A spokesman for Iran's Interior Ministry said the explosion was heard minutes after an Iranian airplane flew over the city and had not been caused by a hostile attack.

So what's really happening?

6 minutes ago


TORONTO (CP) - The Toronto stock market moved up Wednesday on higher energy stocks as oil moved ahead almost $1.00 US per barrel, partly on reports of an explosion near a nuclear facility in the oil-rich nation of Iran.

Calgary Herald

The dollar initially slipped against the euro and Swiss franc after an Iranian report that an unknown aircraft fired a missile on Wednesday near the southern city of Dailam in the province of Bushehr where Iran has a nuclear power plant.

Iran later said the missile report was wrong, as was a subsequent one saying a fuel tank had fallen from a plane.

Israel, which like the United States has accused Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons, was not involved in the explosion, according to senior Israeli security forces.

The Iran news overshadowed robust U.S. housing start numbers for January.

In mid-morning New York trade, the euro was nearly flat against the dollar from late Tuesday's levels at $1.3026 . The euro zone currency had earlier climbed to a two-week high around $1.3065 on the first reports of the Iran blast. Against the Swiss franc , the dollar was trading at 1.1870 francs, down 0.3 percent from late Tuesday.

"Housing starts did not have much impact on the FX market. It's very good data -- we've got new highs in both series," said Greg Anderson, senior currency strategist at ABN AMRO in Chicago.

"I'm sure this will push up U.S interest rates a bit, but when you have this geopolitical thing out there, and you don't know what's going on and you have more data, plus you have Greenspan coming up this morning, you don't really expect much of an FX impact from the housing number," he added.

Reuters Business News

[edit on 16-2-2005 by soficrow]

Ok, I just heard, an Iranian official has just said there are no signs of any explosion. That is odd I must admit.