On Saturday and Sunday, April 26th and 27th, the city of Bandar Abbas was rocked by a series of massive explosions that left hundreds of workers and employees dead or injured, with women comprising a significant portion of the victims.
Eyewitness accounts and on-the-ground reports paint a harrowing picture of the scale of devastation and the dire state of emergency response:
- In the “Saman Gostar” building, 23 out of 30 female staff members have died, while the remaining seven have suffered amputations or severe eye injuries.
- All eight female employees at a worksite container have vanished.
- A local said that two of their female colleagues have suffered eye injuries, with their eyeballs having been popped out of their sockets.
- Witnesses describe seeing burned and unrecognizable bodies. Many victims have been so severely burned that identification is impossible.
- Locals have described the port as a “hell on earth,” estimating the true death toll to far exceed the official figures, likely over 300 casualties.
Hospitals in Bandar Abbas have been overwhelmed due to the high number of casualties, and emergency services are reported to be critically strained.
Relatives and colleagues of the victims have decried the authorities’ silence and the closure of the port, leaving families in anguish and uncertainty as they search for their loved ones.
Investigations reveal that the catastrophe stemmed from the explosion of containers filled with highly hazardous chemicals stored at a warehouse owned by “Banagostar,” a subsidiary of “Sepehr Energy Holding” — a firm linked to Iran’s Ministry of Defense, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in November 2023.
The explosive material responsible for the disaster was sodium perchlorate, a chemical commonly used as solid rocket fuel for ballistic missiles.
News outlets, including the Associated Press, citing maritime security firm Ambrey, confirmed that Bandar Abbas had received new shipments of rocket fuel from China as recently as March.
Dangerous storage practices — placing flammable military-grade materials next to civilian goods such as baby formula, clothing, and industrial parts — led to the rapid spread of the fire and subsequent deadly explosions. Reports indicate that a small fire initially broke out and quickly escalated when the flames reached the sodium perchlorate containers.
This tragedy once again exposes the true nature of the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — entities that recklessly endanger civilian lives for the sake of militarization and missile development. In the calculations of Iran’s rulers, the lives of ordinary people — especially workers and women — hold no value.
The Bandar Abbas catastrophe was not a natural disaster, but a direct consequence of the regime’s destructive and criminal policies.
A regime that prioritizes war-making and weapons proliferation over the safety and well-being of its people forces the defenseless citizens of Iran to pay the ultimate price with their lives.
