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Explosion Reported In Iran's Bushehr Province

16 February 2005 -- Iranian state television is reporting an explosion today in the province of Bushehr, where a contentious project to build a nuclear facility is under way.

State television reported that the blast occurred near the southern port city of Dailam, which is 100 kilometers north of a nuclear power plant under construction.

Al-Alam television's Arabic language station said the explosion might have been caused by a fuel tank dropped into an uninhabited area from an Iranian plane.

The Iranian Interior Ministry has said it has no reason to believe that the reported explosion near the southwestern port city of Deylam might have been caused by "a hostile attack."

Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told AP that "there is a big possibility that it was a friendly fire [accident] by mistake." He said several such mistaken friendly fire incidents have been reported there in recent days but did not give further details.

The spokesman did not say if there have been Iranian military activities or exercises in the region lately.

Russia has completed construction work at the planned nuclear facility, but it is not yet operational.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant has been the target of fierce criticism from the United States, which has accused Tehran of conducting a covert program to develop nuclear weapons.

The station said witnesses initially contacted authorities saying they thought the explosion was caused by a missile from an aircraft.

(Reuters/AFP/dpa)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org