Minister of Interior of Iran Eskandar Momeni announced on April 28 that “errors” have been identified and several individuals have been “summoned” in connection with the deadly explosion that occurred in Shahid Rajaee, part of the Bandar Abbas Port two days ago.
“Assistance forces and firefighters have been working in the most difficult conditions for the past two days to be able to carry out fire extinguishing operations.”
“So far, 46 people have died in this incident, and the missing are being identified, forensic medicine is identifying them through DNA, and the police identification team has entered the area and is busy working,” said the minister, according to the Tasnim news agency.
“Until last night, fire extinguishing was carried out from all four sides, and now the entire area has been divided into several parts, and responsibility for each part has been given to departments so that we can quickly extinguish the fire,” he added.
Momeni said that the fire is now under control, but smoke may continue to billow for several days due to some “chemicals.”
“Some of the perpetrators of this incident have been summoned,” he continued, adding that “mistakes have been made.”
“Every individual or group that was negligent or involved in this incident must be dealt with. A detailed pathological analysis needs to be done on why the goods remained at the port and a report prepared to be submitted to the government.”
The deadly explosion in the Shahid Rajaee area of the Bandar Abbas Port occurred on April 26. In addition to 46 people killed, more than 800 were injured.
An Iranian government official said on April 27 that the large explosion at the Shahid Rajaee Port was not related to Iranian military activities and that media reports claiming otherwise were “part of a psychological operation carried out by the enemy.”
Earlier, AP cited the security firm Ambrey claiming that the fire at the Shahid Rajaee Port may have been caused by improper handling of solid fuel intended for use in ballistic missiles.
Furthermore, Ambrey claimed that the port received shipments of chemicals used in rocket fuel last March.
The company claimed that the fuel that arrived at the Rajaee Port was part of a shipment of ammonium perchlorate received by Iran from China.
On Saturday night, the government-owned IRNA news agency said that the Iranian Customs Administration blamed “stacks of dangerous goods and chemicals stored in the port area” for the explosion.
And that’s all for now. I’m not really sure why this matters, but it seems like there’s a lot going on with this investigation. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s more to uncover about what really happened at the port. Time will tell, I guess.
