Israel Behind Blast at Tehran Missile Base: Official

An explosion at a missile base outside Tehran this weekend killed at least 17 people and decimated the structure. But while Iran says the blast was an accident, a Western intelligence official tells Time not to believe it: It was the work of Israel’s Mossad agency, the official says, and the group isn’t finished with Iran: “There are more bullets in the magazine." The comment follows “coy” reports from Israeli newspapers questioning the sources of various attacks on Iran, writes Karl Vick in a report getting picked up by Israeli media.

The explosion, at a Revolutionary Guard base whose missiles were capable of reaching Israel, killed the head of Iran’s missile development program, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Brigadier Gen. Hassan Moqqadam was “the founder of the deterrent power of our country,” said a Revolutionary Guard member at a funeral ceremony attended by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of Iranian progress toward a nuclear weapon, the Jerusalem Post notes. (More Iran stories.)