Iran’s IRGC says 2 of its members killed in fire at Tehran research site

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says that two of its members have died from injuries they suffered in an unexplained fire yesterday.

The Guard says that the fire erupted in a warehouse at what it describes as a “research self-sufficiency center” west of the capital, Tehran. At least three Guard members were injured, two of whom later died. The statement does not provide any further details.

The powerful Guard runs the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, which the US Treasury sanctioned in 2017 over its work “researching and developing ballistic missiles.” It isn’t immediately clear whether the site struck by yesterday’s fire is involved in missile development.

Missile facilities and other sensitive sites in Iran have seen fires before.

The most notable came in 2011, when a blast at a missile base near Tehran killed Revolutionary Guard commander Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, who led the paramilitary force’s missile program, and 16 others.

Initially, authorities described the blast as an accident, though a former prisoner later said that the Guard interrogated him on the suspicion that Israel was behind the explosion.