Deadly blast in Bandar Abbas and other explosions fuel jitters in Iran

A deadly explosion that officials said had most likely been caused by a gas leak rocked an eight-story apartment building in the port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring at least 14, according to Fars, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The head of the local fire department told the Mehr News Agency that all of the injured had been evacuated. As news of the damage emerged, unsubstantiated social media reports claimed the blast had been the result of a U.S.- or Israeli-led assassination of the Revolutionary Guards’ navy commander, Commodore Alireza Tangsiri.

The Guards denied that Commodore Tangsiri had been killed, calling the speculation "psychological warfare" spread by Israeli intelligence. Neither Israel nor the United States commented publicly on the claims. Other incidents added to the panic. Authorities said five people were killed and two injured in what the Islamic Republic News Agency described as a "domestic gas explosion" in Ahvaz, and a local official said the blast did not have a "security or sabotage origin." Officials dismissed unverified social media reports of explosions in Tabriz as rumors and said smoke in Robat Karim had been the result of a reed fire near a river.

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