Discovery of Terrorist Attack Plot Against 50 Targets in Iran
Iran’s Minister of Intelligence announced the discovery of a terrorist attack plot against 50 targets in Iran and the arrest of 10 individuals. He presented a report in a closed-door parliamentary session. According to a Tehran parliament representative, Tehran, Mahabad, and Chabahar were among the bombing targets.
Mahmoud Alavi, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence, appeared before journalists on Tuesday (June 21) following a closed-door parliamentary session where he presented a report to representatives.
The Minister of Intelligence announced that over the past 7 days, from June 15-21, “10 takfiri Wahhabi terrorists” were arrested in Tehran and three border and central provinces of Iran, and “interrogation of the terrorists” and the process of intelligence and operational investigations “inside and outside the country simultaneously and comprehensively” continues.
Intelligence Minister: We Identified 50 Explosive Targets
Mahmoud Alavi added that the failed operations “were in the form of bombing and remote detonation, suicide operations, explosions of vehicles carrying large quantities of explosive materials aimed at detonating in crowded public gathering centers”
According to the Intelligence Minister, the arrested individuals had identified 50 explosive targets, with explosives for some targets prepared and others in the process of preparation, procurement, and receipt.
Alavi added in another part of his remarks: “So far, approximately 100 kilograms of ready-to-detonate explosives and their precursor compounds have been discovered and seized, and the delivery of two tons of these materials to terrorists has been prevented.”
Report to Closed-Door Parliamentary Session
In response to journalists’ questions about further details regarding “the discovery of recent terrorist activity” in Tehran and several other provinces, the Intelligence Minister promised to “present a detailed report on this matter to the people.”
According to Tasnim, a news agency close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Javad Karimi-Qodoosi, representative of Mashhad and member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said regarding the Intelligence Minister’s presence in the closed-door session: “Ayatollah Alavi provided details of the special operations of this ministry (Intelligence) in discovering and arresting terrorist groups that intended to carry out bombings in Tehran, Mahabad, Chabahar, and several other points in the country.”
Karimi-Qodoosi, noting that in this session the Intelligence Minister reported on the readiness of the country’s security services to conduct “preemptive operations against terrorist groups” and contain them “in the same region.”
Doubts About the Presence of ISIS Forces Inside Iran
Iran’s Intelligence Minister had previously announced similar reports and each time refrained from providing further details. To date, the names of the arrested individuals and the method of bomb discovery have not been announced. No images of the arrested individuals have been released.
Previously, General Bahman Reyhani, commander of the Nabi Akram Corps in Kermanshah, had announced: “Many teams from the ISIS group that had been active in this province for the past two years have been arrested by the Guard and the Ministry of Intelligence.”
This comes despite claims by Iranian intelligence and security officials about “discovering ISIS terrorist teams” in Tehran and some parts of the country, there are doubts about “the presence of ISIS forces” in Iran.
Ali Younesi, Intelligence Minister during Mohammad Khatami’s administration and Hassan Rouhani’s advisor on ethnic and religious minorities, explicitly told the Iran News Agency (November 29) in this regard that “there is no movement aligned with ISIS among Shia and Sunni sects and other denominations in Iran’s Islamic Republic system.”
Source: DW
