One killed in mysterious ‘accident’ at Iranian military complex

TEHRAN, Iran

An engineer was killed and another was injured in a mysterious "accident" at a military facility in southeast Tehran, according to the country’s defense ministry.

The incident took place on Wednesday at one of the research centers of Parchin military complex, situated about 60 kilometers southeast of the Iranian capital.

The semi-official Fars News Agency, said, citing the defense ministry, that a probe was underway to ascertain the cause of what it called an "accident.”

The ministry did not divulge details about the incident, which resulted in the death of an engineer.

The military complex had earlier been rocked by an explosion on June 26, 2020, when Iranian officials firmly denied any foreign hand.

Parchin military complex has been in the past linked to Iran's weapons and missile program.

In 2004, it was alleged that Iran was conducting secret experiments of "high-explosive shaped charges with an inert core of depleted uranium" related to its weaponization tests.

Iran, however, rejected the charges and allowed the UN nuclear watchdog access to the complex in early and late 2005.

In February 2006, it concluded that its inspectors “did not observe any unusual activities in the buildings visited,” and that “environmental samples did not indicate the presence of nuclear material.”

In April 2018, then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an explosive revelation about the complex, saying it was a key part of Iran's nuclear weapons research effort.

The latest incident comes after a series of sabotage attacks at Iran's nuclear sites in recent years, which Tehran blamed on Israel.

Since 2010, at least six senior nuclear scientists have also been killed in sophisticated operations, with fingers pointing at the Israeli spy agency.

Earlier this week, an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed outside his home in Tehran by motorcycle-borne assailants.

A report in The New York Times on Wednesday said Israeli officials admitted to American officials that they had killed the IRGC officer, accusing him of heading a "covert unit" that kidnapped and killed Israelis.