Pentagon: Iranian rocket likely a failure

TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A test in Iran of a rocket able to carry a satellite into orbit was likely a failure, Pentagon officials said Monday.

A senior U.S. defense official told CNN while Iranian officials claimed the launch of their country's first satellite carrier was a success this weekend, Pentagon officials opposed such a claim.

"The Iranians did not successfully launch the rocket," the unidentified official said of Saturday's launch.

The official added that the second stage of the rocket's launch likely failed due to unspecified problems with the satellite carrier's design.

The official's comments come in the wake of concerned comments by National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who called the Iranian rocket program "troubling."

"The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions," the security official said.

The head of Iran's space program told debkafile.com, a Web site of Israeli military intelligence, that only a "dummy satellite" was involved in the weekend launch.

"The Safir satellite carrier was launched today and for the first time we successfully launched a dummy satellite into orbit," Reza Taghizadeh said Saturday.