AP – Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran yesterday, with an official blaming the blasts on a “sabotage and extremist action” .
Details were scarce, though the blasts hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometre pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.
Manager of Iran’s gas network control centre Saeed Aghli told Iranian state television a “sabotage and extremist” action caused explosions along several areas of the line.
There are no known insurgent groups operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran’s Lur ethnic group. Aghli did not name any suspects in the blasts.
Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji, also speaking to state TV, compared the attack to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assault on gas pipelines in 2011. “The goal that the enemies were pursuing were to cut the gas in the major provinces of the country and it did not happen,” Owji said.
“Except for the number of villages that were near the gas transmission lines, no province suffered a cut.”
In the past, separatists in southwestern Iran claimed attacks against oil pipelines. However, attacks elsewhere in Iran against such infrastructure are rare.
