ISIL has claimed responsibility for two bombings in Kerman this year that killed nearly 100 people.
Iran has announced the arrest of an Islamic State (ISIS) member who was planning an attack at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Concerned citizens alerted law enforcement agencies in Mahadasht, Alborz province, about 60 kilometers west of the capital Tehran, and a “senior” ISIL member, Mohammad “Ramesh” Zaker, was arrested, police spokesman Saeed said.・Mr. Montazello Lmady made the announcement on Saturday. .
He said Zucker and two other ISIL members had been detained, adding that eight people who were accompanying “terrorists planning suicide bombings” during Eid al-Fitr, which ends next week in Ramadan, have been arrested. he added.
In January, two bombings occurred in the southeastern city of Kerman during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the assassination of Supreme Commander Qassem Soleimani, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than 200.
The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the Afghanistan-based branch of ISIL behind last month's attack on a concert hall near Moscow that killed at least 144 people, claimed responsibility for the Kerman attack. issued.
In January, Iran arrested 35 people, including an ISIS-K commander, in connection with the attack.
The group was also involved in an attack on a major Shiite shrine in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. Iran later publicly executed the two attackers after a trial.
In 2017, deadly attacks on Iran's parliament and the tomb of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder and first supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, were claimed by ISIL.
The group has been involved in sectarian violence, particularly in Iran and other Shiite-majority regions.
The threat of new attacks has emerged as Iran continues to grapple with security issues amid heightened regional tensions over Israel's war in Gaza.
On Thursday, militants from the separatist Sunni group Jaish al-Adl attacked two Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) bases in the southeastern border province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
Funerals for military personnel killed by Jaish al-Adl were held Saturday in their hometowns, including the western province of Lorestan and northern Mazandaran.
Funeral processions were also held in Tehran, Isfahan and Lorestan for seven members of the Revolutionary Guards killed in the Israeli attack in Syria that destroyed the Iranian consulate building in Damascus.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander killed in the Damascus attack, was buried on Saturday in his hometown of Isfahan in central Iran.
On Saturday, Iranian military chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri told a crowd in Tehran: “The criminal United States and the cruel, child-murdering Zionists must know that the regime's life is at risk.” Stated. [Israel] The end is near and there is little left until its decline and destruction. ”
“The airstrike on the consulate, as a protected mission under international agreements, means nothing but the madness of the Zionist regime, because it harms itself and takes lives. Israeli Politics “If there was any trust left at home, this move destroyed it,” he said, renewing Iran's vow of revenge against the slain commander.