A “battery explosion” in Iran’s submarine building center in Persian Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas killed several people on April 6.
Ann official from the governor’s office in Bandar Abbas said that three people working for Iran’s armed forces naval industries were killed in the incident. Apparently, there are no other injuries.
"Three Defense Ministry staff were martyred after a submarine battery exploded at the Shahid Darvishi shipyard in Bandar Abbas..., which builds and repairs military ships and submarines," IRIB said.
Davood Abdi head of the defense ministry’s public relations office said that the explosion happened when a “light vessel” was being repaired.
Shahid Darvishi naval industries is located 37 kilometers west of Bandar Abbas and it builds, as well as repairs surface vessels and submarines.
In recent years several explosion in Iran’s military installments has led to speculations about possible sabotage, which in some instances Iranian officials have confirmed and in other cases they have maintained silence.
The latest incident happened on February 3 when three Iranian aerospace researchers died in a fire at the Iranian Space Research Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Telecommunications.
Following that incident, a February 13 New York Times article suggested the reason for the failure of two Iranian space missile launches this year might have been "part of an expanding campaign by the United States to undercut Tehran’s military and isolate its economy."
The article said former and current administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity "described a far-reaching effort, created under President George W. Bush, to slip faulty parts and materials into Iran’s aerospace supply chains. The program was active early in the Obama administration, but had eased by 2017, when Mr. Pompeo took over as the director of the C.I.A. and injected it with new resources."
In previous years, cyber-attacks on Iranian aerospace and nuclear centers have caused problems for Tehran's ambitious programs. These include a joint U.S.-Israeli cyber-attack, which caused a delay in Iran's nuclear program in 2011.
