France Media AgencyAug 04, 2022 7:06:20 PM IST
Tehran: Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said on Thursday it had arrested 10 Islamic State suspects who were planning attacks targeting religious commemorations, days before the major Shiite mourning ritual of Ashura.
The ministry said “10 Daesh terrorists”, using another name for the Islamic State group, had been arrested, adding that they had been “sent to carry out several terrorist operations among mourners”.
Two intelligence officers were injured in a shootout during the arrests, he added.
Iran is currently commemorating the first 10 days of the Islamic holy month of Muharram, culminating in Ashura on Monday, when worshipers crowd into mosques and take part in processions.
Ashura marks the death of revered Shia Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Intelligence Ministry said the men entered from neighboring Iraq and Turkey and were arrested during operations over the past three days in western and southern Iran.
A report on state television showed equipment believed to have been confiscated from the suspects, including a sniper rifle, knives, phones and laptops. It also showed one of the arrested men, who was blindfolded.
The ministry called the men “takfiris”, a term generally used in Iran and other countries to refer to Sunni extremists.
But Iran has also accused Israel’s archenemy of using the jihadists to attack them, saying the men were sent after “last week’s big failure in the explosion of a hotspot” that he blamed on “separatist terrorists”.
Following this failed attack, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence announced on July 27 that it had arrested agents linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad, who were also members of a banned Kurdish rebel group.
“The criminal Zionist regime…this time, attempted to carry out its terrorist operations through ISIS takfiri teams,” the statement added, referring to Israel.
Iran and Israel have been engaged in a shadow war for years, with the Islamic republic accusing the Jewish state of carrying out sabotage attacks on its nuclear sites and assassinating key figures, including scientists.
Iran has been involved in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria through military “advisers”.
In June 2017, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a double attack targeting Iran’s parliament compound and the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people.
Last June, Iran hanged a Sunni extremist who was sentenced to death for killing two Shia clerics and injuring another in April, with authorities blaming “takfiri elements” for the attack.
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