A massive explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base just west of the Iranian capital today killed 27 members of the elite force,officials said. "Twenty-seven Guards personnel were killed in the explosion," a spokesman for the force,Commander Ramezan Sharif,told state television,adding that some of those injured were in critical condition. An emergency official,Majid Khaled,quoted by the Mehr news agency,said 23 people were injured in the blast and taken to nearby hospitals. The explosion shortly after 1 pm (0930 GMT) hit an ammunition depot at the base in Bid Ganeh,near the town of Malard on the western outskirts of Tehran,some 20 kilometres from the city centre,according to media reports. It shattered the windows of residential neighbourhoods in the western suburbs of Tehran,witnesses told AFP. It was heard in the city centre. "Initial investigations show the blast occurred as ammunition was being moved," Sharif said earlier. The deputy head of the national security commission,Esmaeel Kosari,said Parliament would open a probe into the blast,the ISNA news agency reported.
