|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
According to Iranian official media, two personnel working in Iran’s aerospace industry killed in separate events while on active duty.
Ali Kamani, a member of the IRGC’s aerospace division working in Khomein, some 320 kilometres (200 miles) south of the capital Tehran, was killed in a “driving accident” while on an unspecified mission, according to a statement released by the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) branch in Markazi province late on Sunday.
Then, early Monday, the IRGC’s semi-official Fars news website stated that another aerospace worker, a 33-year-old named Mohammad Abdous, had perished while on mission.
Abdous worked for Iran’s defence ministry, according to the ministry.
The men’s deaths being labelled as “martyrdoms” could indicate that Iran believes they were killed.
Abdous’ death was not reported in any detail, except that he died on Sunday in the northern province of Semnan.
Kamani and Abdous’ deaths are the most recent in a series of strange deaths in recent weeks.
Ali Esmaeilzadeh, an IRGC Quds Force colonel, was said to have perished in an accident earlier this month by official media.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is loyal to the IRGC, has dismissed claims made by a London-based Iranian opposition television programme that Esmaeilzadeh was killed by the IRGC on suspicion of involvement in the death of another colonel on May 22.
Tasnim called the claim “psychological warfare and journalistic fabrication,” claiming he fell from his home’s unsecured balcony.
Ayoob Entezari, an aeronautical engineer, died in questionable circumstances on May 31. According to Israeli media, Entezari was poisoned during a dinner party and the host had fled the country, claiming he worked on Iran’s missile and drone programmes.
However, the Yazd judiciary described the 35-year-old Entezari as a “regular employee at an industrial company” who died in a hospital from an unidentified “illness” and had nothing to do with the IRGC.