“Massive” being an entirely appropriate adjective based on the amateur video shot of the aftermath from a distance. I’ve posted that video at the end of this post. But first, the story behind it:

Brigadier General Hassan Moghaddam was said to be “responsible for industrial research aimed at ensuring self-sufficiency of the Revolutionary Guards’ armaments”, a coded way of confirming reports that he was responsible for its missile inventory.

The authorities claimed the explosion was caused by an accident which happened as ammunition was being moved, but the high-profile status of its main victim will add to speculation that it was an act of sabotage aimed at the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

One US-based commentator known to have good sources in Israel’s military community said he had been told it was carried out by Mossad, co-operating with an exile group, the People’s Mojaheddin of Iran (MEK).

He drew comparisons with an explosion at a base housing Shahab-3 long-range missiles just over a year ago, which killed 18 people and which was also put down by the authorities to a fire in an ammunition depot.

Meanwhile, Iran is confirming it’s been hit with Stuxnet II — successor to the ground-breaking software virus that made machinery destroy itself without anyone noticing or being able to stop the process.

For the first time, Iran admitted on Sunday that it had been on the receiving end of a new cyber attack by the Duqu computer virus that allegedly targeted computers of firms in the Islamic Republic.

Speaking with the official IRNA news agency, head of Iranian civil defense Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali said that Tehran had developed a software to thwart attacks by the Duqu virus, adding that the “software to control the [Duqu] virus has been developed and made available to organizations and corporations” in Iran.

And here’s that video. If Israel did it, then good for Israel. It seems the rest of the world is unprepared to act despite fully understanding what’s at stake. It might be up to the Israelis to do the job themselves.