Officials in Iran Suspect Sabotage in Wave of Fires and Explosions

Middle East|Iranian Officials Suspect Sabotage in String of Mysterious Fires

For more than two weeks, mysterious explosions and fires have erupted across Iran, setting ablaze apartment complexes and oil refineries, a road outside a major airport and even a shoe factory.

In public, Iranian officials have shrugged off the events as mere coincidence or blamed aging infrastructure, trying to soothe the frayed nerves of a population still traumatized by the country’s war with Israel and the United States in June.

But in private, three Iranian officials, including a member of the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said they believed that many of them were acts of sabotage.

While Iran’s government has many enemies that would like to see it falter, the officials have trained their suspicions on Israel, pointing to its history of covert operations in Iran, including explosions and assassinations. And after Israel’s 12-day bombing campaign last month in Iran, a senior Israeli intelligence official had vowed to continue operating in Iran.

A European official who deals with Iran said he had also assessed the attacks as sabotage and suspected Israel of involvement, based on its history in Iran — both as a form of psychological warfare and to take out targets. The four officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The Iranian officials interviewed did not provide evidence to back up their suspicions, and the authorities who spoke publicly cited other causes for the explosions, including gas leaks, garbage fires and old infrastructure. But they have also not given the public a convincing explanation of why gas explosions are occurring at a rate of one to two per day across the country.