More Intrigue in Iran

On top of a cyber attack on Iran's nuclear weapons development program by the mysterious Stuxnet worm, now comes word of an explosion of unknown provenience at a launch site for missiles targeted on Israel and American forces in Iraq. The report is at debkafile which has not always been accurate in the past, but if it's correct this time it suggests that someone has decided that the best way to stop the Iranians is by covertly taking out their ability to threaten Western troops and assets.

Here's debkafile's lede:

A top-secret Iranian military installation was struck by a triple blast Tues. Oct. 12 the day before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon. debkafile's military and intelligence sources report the site held most of the Shehab-3 medium-range missile launchers Iran had stocked for striking US forces in Iraq and Israel in the event of war - some set to deliver triple warheads (tri-conic nosecones). The 18 soldiers officially reported killed in the blasts and 14 injured belonged to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) main missile arm, the Al-Hadid Brigades.

The Imam Ali Base where the explosion occurred is situated .... 400 kilometers from Baghdad and primary American bases in central Iraq and 1,250 kilometers from Tel Aviv and central Israel. Both are well within the Shehab-3 missile's 1,800-2,500-kilometer operational range.

Iran is saying that the blasts were the result of an accidental fire at the base and did not result from a deliberate attack.

Well, maybe.