An explosion was heard in western Tehran early on Saturday morning, with initial reports and satellite imagery indicating that a missile base belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was attacked.
Early Saturday morning, social media users in Iran reported hearing a large explosion in western Tehran with some reporting that they had seen a flash from a blast. Some other users reported seeing a fighter jet flying low over the city, raising speculation that the "explosion" heard was just a sonic boom.
Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a researcher at the Global Institute for Democracy and Strategic Studies think tank and a former member of an Iranian militia called Ansar-e Hezbollah, shared a photo reportedly from the area where he said the light of an explosion was seen.
Later on Saturday and on Sunday, unconfirmed reports began spreading largely on social media and among Iranian opposition sources that the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group missile base in western Tehran, which was last attacked in September of last year, had been attacked yet again.
On Sunday, the Intelli Times intelligence blog shared satellite imagery showing what appeared to be damage to the roof of a structure in the Shahid Hemmat base which had been struck in the September incident.
On Saturday, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas cited "well-informed Iranian sources" claiming that the Shahid Hemmat base was seemingly attacked by drones on Friday night. According to the report, drones launched from within Iran not far from the base hit the site.
Al-Qabas added that new tests of ballistic missile engines had recently been conducted at the base.
Iranian state media and Iranian officials had not referred to, confirmed or denied the reports as of Monday afternoon.
