According to AFP, EA’s critically acclaimed shooter Battlefield 3 has been banned in Iran due to the fact that the game depicts US armour and aircraft launching an assault on Tehran.

A Tehran-based IT union warned all shops to abide by the ban.

The Iran scenario sees US forces fighting hostile militia near the Iraq-Iran border then moving on to Tehran under a looming nuclear threat. Intense gunfights are depicted in various military, industrial and urban locations in the capital, including Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar.

According to EA, five million copies of “Battlefield 3” were sold within a week of it hitting the market on October 25. EA has no resellers in Iran,  but pirated copies of all major videogames and computer software are widely available.

It is the first time an official ban on the game was reported. But some computer store owners said they had declined to stock “Battlefield 3” since its release, anticipating the crackdown on it.

“I do not have any copy of the game,” said Hamid, a shop owner who requested his last name not be used.

Iranian police overseeing public places “raided (some shops) and arrested owners for selling the game secretly” even before the ban became public, he said.

AFP was unable to confirm the claim.

The Fars news agency said the game had prompted an online protest by a group of “Iranian youths.”

“We understand that the story of a videogame is hypothetical … (but) we believe the game is purposely released at a time when the US is pushing the international community into fearing Iran,” the group said in an online petition, with more than 5,000 signatories so far.