TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Is Iran about to be invaded by little green men or are the Americans racing through the night sky in spaceships to spy on their arch-foe the Islamic Republic?
Flying saucer fever has gripped Iran after dozens of sightings in the last few days. Fanciful cartoons of alien spacecraft have adorned the front pages.
State television Wednesday showed a sparkling white disc it said was filmed over Tehran Tuesday night.
More colorful Unidentified Flying Objects have been spotted beaming out green, red, blue and purple rays over the northern cities of Tabriz and Ardebil and in the Caspian Sea province of Golestan, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Newspapers and agencies reported people rushing out into the streets in eight towns Tuesday night to watch a bright extraterrestrial light dipping in and out of the clouds.
An air force officer in the Revolutionary Guards was quoted in the reformist Vagha-ye Etefaghiyeh daily saying Iran's Supreme National Security Council should investigate whether these visitors from afar had hostile intent.
But Sa'dollah Nasiri-Qeydari, head of the Astronomical Society of Iran, told Reuters the stories were unfounded.
"In my opinion, flying saucers do not exist," he said, insisting his telescopes would have picked up invaders from outer space.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/28/iran.ufos.reut/index.html
Flying saucer fever has gripped Iran after dozens of sightings in the last few days. Fanciful cartoons of alien spacecraft have adorned the front pages.
State television Wednesday showed a sparkling white disc it said was filmed over Tehran Tuesday night.
More colorful Unidentified Flying Objects have been spotted beaming out green, red, blue and purple rays over the northern cities of Tabriz and Ardebil and in the Caspian Sea province of Golestan, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Newspapers and agencies reported people rushing out into the streets in eight towns Tuesday night to watch a bright extraterrestrial light dipping in and out of the clouds.
An air force officer in the Revolutionary Guards was quoted in the reformist Vagha-ye Etefaghiyeh daily saying Iran's Supreme National Security Council should investigate whether these visitors from afar had hostile intent.
But Sa'dollah Nasiri-Qeydari, head of the Astronomical Society of Iran, told Reuters the stories were unfounded.
"In my opinion, flying saucers do not exist," he said, insisting his telescopes would have picked up invaders from outer space.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/28/iran.ufos.reut/index.html
