A MAJOR gas pipeline in Iran has been blown up in a suspected sabotage attack.
Dramatic footage shows flames towering into the sky amid World War Three fears.
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A local official blamed the two blasts on “sabotage and terrorist action” as tensions escalate in the Middle East amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Several emergency crews rushed to the scene between the cities of Borujen and Shahrekord early on Wednesday after initial reports of a “technical malfunction”
A huge blaze engulfed the line – triggering large explosions.
Saeed Aghli, the manager of Iran’s gas network control center, later insisted a sabotage and terrorist action caused explosions along several areas of the line.
No casualties were reported.
Aghli claimed on state TV: “The explosions in several parts of gas pipelines in Iran early this morning were caused by terrorist acts carried out by saboteurs.
“The fires have been contained in almost all gas pipelines and currently there are no problems in the transfer of gas to the cities and villages of the provinces, with the exception of some villages close to the explosions.”
He said the blasts happened near Boroujen in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, as well as in Safashahr in Fars province.
No known insurgent groups are operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran’s Lur ethnic group.
Aghli did not name any suspects in the blasts.
Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji, also speaking to state TV, compared the attack to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assaults on gas pipelines in 2011 including around the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Tehran marked the 45th anniversary of the revolution on Sunday.
“The goal that the enemies were pursuing were to cut the gas in the major provinces of the country and it did not happen”, Owji said.
“Except for the number of villages that were near the gas transmission lines, no province suffered a cut.
“We anticipated such acts of sabotage around the anniversary of the Iranian revolution and quickly changed the configuration of the transmission network to counter the enemy’s objective to cause gas outages in major province.”
In the past, Arab separatists in southwestern Iran have claimed attacks against oil pipelines.
However, attacks elsewhere in Iran against such infrastructure are rare.
Since the revolution, Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest from Kurds in the country’s northwest, the Baluch in the east and Arabs in the southwest.
However, tensions have risen in recent years as Iran faces an economy hobbled by international sanctions over its nuclear program.
The country has faced years of mass demonstrations, most recently in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in custody after her arrest allegedly over how she wore her mandatory headscarf.
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out attacks on Iran that have predominantly targeted its nuclear program.
On Tuesday, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned that Iran is not entirely transparent regarding its atomic programme.
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme come as groups that Tehran is arming – Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels – have launched attacks on Israel over its bombardment of Gaza.
Houthi militants are continuing to attack commercial shipping in the region, sparking repeated airstrikes from the US and UK.
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