Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Iran has reported the loss of a senior military commander.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Gen. Hassan Moghaddam was
killed in an explosion at a military base southwest of Teheran on Nov. 12.
IRGC said Moghaddam, who began his career in 1986, was the leader in the
military’s missile program.

“IRGC will not forget his effective role in the development of the
country’s defense and his efforts in launching and organizing artillery and missile units,” IRGC said on Nov. 13.

Moghaddam was one of 17 casualties in an explosion at an IRGC base near Bidganeh. At first, IRGC said the explosion was accidental, but later Western media asserted that Israel’s Mossad espionage agency was behind the attack. Moghaddam was believed to have played a leading role in Iran’s effort to design a nuclear warhead for Shihab-3.

On Nov. 14, Iranian sources told the British newspaper Guardian that Israel was believed to have masterminded the attack on the IRGC base. Earlier, IRGC said the explosion had stemmed from the accidental detonation of a munitions depot.

“Because of his [Moghaddam’s] role, the enemy always wanted to identify
and eliminate him,” IRGC Brig. Gen. Abbas Khani said.

Officials said Moghaddam, buried on Nov. 14, was a major developer of
Iran’s Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile. They said Moghaddam,
close to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, founded the nation’s ballistic
missile program, including IRGC’s munitions development unit.

“He was the founder of IRGC’s surface-to-surface missile systems,” IRGC
Gen. Mustafa Izadi said.

  Ali Khamenei, Bidganeh, Gen. Abbas Khani, Gen. Hossan Moghaddam, Gen. Mustafa Izadi, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Reports tie Mossad to explosion that killed leader of IRGC missile program, Shihab-3