Report: Iran ordered Hezbollah to bomb IDF troops

Haaretz

Tuesday's bomb attack on Israel Defense Forces troops in the Har Dov area on the Lebanese border was ordered by Iran in retaliation for a mysterious fire at the Parchin military research complex in Iran, according to A-Rai newspaper, published in Kuwait.

The Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, in which two IDF soldiers were wounded,

The Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Friday that that the Parchin blast earlier in the week was an attack "by a foreign country," rather than an accident as presented by Iran.

It quoted European and American sources as saying that Iran had ordered Hezbollah to undertake Tuesday's bombing in retaliation for Parchin.

The A-Rai report has not been confirmed by any other sources.

Analysis of before and after satellite images of the Parchin military compound in Iran show the telltale signs of "damage consistent with an attack against bunkers in a central locality within the military research complex" analyst Ronen Solomon wrote in a report in Israel Defense this week.

According to Solomon's report, the effects of a large explosion in the center of the complex can be clearly seen in satellite images.

On Monday, an Iranian defense industry told Iranian news agency IRNA that two workers were killed in a fire at an explosives factory in an eastern district of Tehran.

An Iranian opposition website, Saham, described the incident as a strong explosion and said it took place near Iran's sprawling Parchin military facility, which is located around 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of the capital. It did not give a source for its report, which could not be independently verified.