"UFO" Reports Abound Near Reputed Iranian Nuke Plants
Long before Monday's Washington Post
article reporting the US has sent one UAV after another over Iran
to eyeball that country's controversial nuclear plant, Iranians who
live and work in the neighborhood had been reporting mysterious
UFOs.
For more than a year now, Iranians have been reporting strange,
shiny objects overhead. Some even took pictures. Most of the
sightings were in northern and northwest Iran, home to the very
same nuclear plants the US and UN have been worried are used to
create nuclear weapons.
"Most of the shining objects that our people see in Iran's
airspace are American spying equipment used to spy on Iran's
nuclear and military facilities," said Iranian Information Minister
Ali Yunessi, as quoted in the New York Times. "If any of the bright
objects come close, they will definitely meet our fire and will be
shot down. We possess the necessary equipment to confront
them."
Something Big Goes Bang
Not long after that statement, local news organizations reported
a large explosion in southern Iran. Those reports indicated Iranian
anti-aircraft batteries had fired on one of the mysterious air
vehicles, causing the explosion.
There was an immediate flurry of contradictory reports from the
region surrounding the explosion. One government official was
reported to have attributed the explosion to a fuel tank falling
from an airplane. A spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
said the blast was part of a dam construction project. Another
government official, paraphrased in the Times, said there was a big
bang, but no blast.
"The unidentified flying objects
could be satellites, comets or spying or reconnaissance crafts
trying to monitor Iran's nuclear installations," the daily news
publication Ressalat quoted a spokesman for the Regular Army Air
Force, Col. Salman Mahini, as saying.
"Flights of unknown objects in the country's airspace have
increased in the recent weeks," he continued. "They have been seen
over Bushehr and Isfahan province.... All anti-aircraft units and
jet fighters have been ordered to shoot down any flying objects
over Iran's air space."
So far, Washington has denied sending UAVs over Iran. Iranian
air defense officials, at least in public, agree. They say there
has been no penetration of Iranian airspace by any unauthorized
foreign aircraft.