A massive explosion rocked the Mahdaj Ahwaz gas production plant near the Az-Zarqan region in Ahwaz province, western Iran on Saturday, days after another explosion rocked an Iranian nuclear facility.
Social media showed video clips of smoke rising from the power station.
Ahvaz, population 1.3 million, is home to Persians, Arabs, Bakhtiaris, Dezfulis, and Shushtaris. In September 2018, a military parade in Ahwaz was attacked by armed gunmen of the Ahvaz National Resistance, in the name of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA). They killed 25 people, including soldiers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and civilian bystanders.
The Al-Zagan region is reported to have, besides the power plant, a secret nuclear plant.
The explosion in Ahwaz is the fifth major attack inside Iran since June 25, when a huge explosion in the area of a major Iranian military and weapons development base in Khojir, east of Tehran turned the skyline bright orange. Last Tuesday night, the Sina At’har Medical Clinic in Tehran caught fire and then a massive explosion erupted there, killing 19 and injuring 14 people. Last Thursday, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported an accident had taken place at the Natanz nuclear site, some 200 miles south of Tehran. While Iranian officials claim it was just an accident, an intelligence official told the NY Times that the explosion had been caused by an act of terrorism inside the facility.
“The explosion was caused by an explosive device planted inside the facility, and the explosion destroyed many parts of the facility above ground,” the unnamed official told the Times.
Then, on Friday, a major fire broke out overnight in the city of Shiraz in southwestern Iran, according to videos circulated on social networks.