Check out these photos of Iran's missile research facility near the town of Bid Kaneh about 30 miles outside Tehran. The picture above shows the facility in September and the photo after the jump shows the base on Nov. 22, almost totally destroyed by an explosion ten days earlier on Nov. 12.
That blast killed the head of Iran's missile program, Major General Hassan Moghaddam, and more than a dozen other researchers as they were "apparently performing a volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site when the blast occurred," said the Institute for Science and International Security a DC-based think thank that released the photos this week.
The researchers were working on a version of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile that would be capable of hitting Israel.
This is the latest major "accident" that has befallen Iran's nuclear and missile program in the last few years. There are already numerous claims that Israel's Mossad and western intelligence agencies may have been linked to the blast, with the UK newspaper, The Guardian, quoting an unnamed intel official as saying "there are more bullets in the magazine."
Who knows what this deadly sabotage campaign will lead to. It could cause Iran's leaders to abandon their efforts or it could make them all the more determined to field nukes.
Click through the jump to do your own analysis of the scene. Sound off in the comments as to whether this increasingly kinetic sabotage of Iran's missile and nuclear programs is a good or bad thing.
