One person was killed and dozens more injured in an explosion in Bandar Abbas, Iran, local media said on Saturday, as tension between Washington and Tehran increases.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said social media reports that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy commander was the target of the explosion at the southern port were “completely false”.
Videos online of the aftermath of the explosion showed significant destruction to buildings and debris scattered around the site, with heavy smoke surrounding the area. Persian Gulf Radio claimed that several cars and a shop had also been damaged. Rescue and firefighting teams were at the scene.
Iranian media later said a gas leak was to blame. However, the incident sparked alarm and speculation on social media against a backdrop of soaring tensions over the prospect of war.
The port of Bandar Abbas lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world's seaborne oil.
Iran said on Thursday that the IRGC would conduct a two-day, live-fire naval exercise in the strait from Sunday. The US military's Central Command on Friday told Iran that it would not permit any actions in the strait that it deemed to be unsafe to US forces.
A second explosion was later reported in Ahvaz, more than 1,000km north of Bandar Abbas. Four people were killed, according to the state-run Tehran Times, which quoted the head of the city's fire department. It too was said to be a gas explosion.
Israeli officials told Reuters that their country was not involved in either of Saturday's explosions.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused US, Israeli and European leaders of exploiting Iran's economic problems, inciting unrest and providing people with the means to “tear the nation apart”.
Heightened tension between Iran and the US, plus a major American military build-up in the region loom over the country.
Pressure has been building for weeks on the regime in response to its fierce crackdown on protesters. The most significant protests to convulse the country in three years came amid growing western concern over Iran's nuclear programme.
US President Donald Trump initially threatened to use military force against Iran as reports emerged of the action against anti-government protests in January. Activists outside the country have put the death toll at about 6,500 people, most of them protesters. They say they are investigating reports of thousands more killings.
Mr Trump appeared to back down from using military force after receiving assurances that protesters would not be executed in Iran. However, many now believe military strikes are imminent, while Iran has no specific plans to meet or negotiate with the US over its nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday.
Late on Saturday, Ari Larajani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, appeared to contradict Mr Araghchi when he said on X that “contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing”.
