Explosion at Marine Industries in Bandar Abbas; At Least Three Killed

An explosion occurred at the Marine Industries of the Iranian Ministry of Defense in Bandar Abbas, resulting in several fatalities. The incident happened on Saturday due to a 'battery explosion' of a submarine at the 'Shahid Darvishi Marine Industries.' According to Azizollah Kenari, the head of the Bandar Abbas governorate, three employees of the Shahid Darvishi Marine Industries were killed in this incident. Davood Abdi, the director of public relations at the Ministry of Defense, also stated that there were no injuries reported. Mr. Abdi mentioned that the incident occurred 'during the repair of a light vessel,' but did not provide further details. The Shahid Darvishi Marine Industries, a subsidiary of the Iranian Ministry of Defense, is located 37 kilometers west of Bandar Abbas, next to the ISOICO complex (Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex). This complex is responsible for the construction and repair of military surface and subsurface vessels. In recent years, explosions at military facilities in Iran have led to speculation about possible sabotage, with some of these incidents confirmed by officials of the Islamic Republic while others remain unaddressed. The last incident was reported on Sunday, February 3, 2019, when Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran's Minister of Communications, announced that three researchers lost their lives in a 'fire' at the transportation systems research institute of the Space Research Center. Following that, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, referred to a New York Times report and stated without providing evidence that the failure of two Iranian satellite launches might be due to 'sabotage' by the United States. The New York Times reported in February that the White House has a secret program to counter the Islamic Republic's missile program. The newspaper also reported in June 2012 that delays in Iran's nuclear program were the result of a joint Israeli-American cyber attack, and the Stuxnet malware had disrupted uranium enrichment in Iran. According to this report, Stuxnet was initially tested at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor and turned the Dimona reactor into a 'laboratory' for ensuring the malware's functionality for two years. Reza Taghizadeh, a political analyst, wrote in a note on Radio Farda that the failure of the Payam satellite launch cannot be attributed solely to 'technical defects' and 'normal failure of a space test' without providing sufficient evidence and documentation, and other possibilities, including the role of the American deterrent space capability known as 'Left-of-Launch,' which has been cited in relation to the failures of North Korean missile experiments, cannot be simply dismissed. In October 2016, the Associated Press reported that the ongoing fires at Iran's petrochemical facilities have increased suspicions of hacking and software sabotage in Iran. Additionally, one can refer to the explosion at an ammunition depot of a Revolutionary Guard base in Bidganeh, near the city of Malard, 20 kilometers from Tehran, which occurred in November 2011, resulting in the deaths of Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, head of the Revolutionary Guard's self-sufficiency and industrial research organization, and 16 other members of the Revolutionary Guards.