Iran Says it Has Arrested Head of US-Based 'Terrorist Group'

Iran said it has arrested the head of a US-based "terrorist group" accused of being behind a 2008 bombing in the city of Shiraz. (Reuters)
Iran said it has arrested the head of a US-based "terrorist group" accused of being behind a 2008 bombing in the city of Shiraz. (Reuters)
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Iran Says it Has Arrested Head of US-Based 'Terrorist Group'

Iran said it has arrested the head of a US-based "terrorist group" accused of being behind a 2008 bombing in the city of Shiraz. (Reuters)
Iran said it has arrested the head of a US-based "terrorist group" accused of being behind a 2008 bombing in the city of Shiraz. (Reuters)

Iran said Saturday it has arrested the head of a US-based "terrorist group" accused of being behind a deadly 2008 bombing in the southern city of Shiraz and of other, abortive attacks.

The group's "Jamshid Sharmahd, who was leading armed and sabotage operations inside Iran, is now in the powerful hands" of Iran's security forces, state television said in a report citing a statement from the intelligence ministry.

The statement did not elaborate on where or when the leader of the opposition royalist group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, or Tondar (Farsi for Thunder), was arrested.

According to the statement, he had orchestrated the April 12, 2008 bombing in a packed mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people and wounded 215.

Iran hanged three men convicted of the bombing in 2009, saying they had ties to the monarchist group.

It said they had been taking orders from an Iranian US-backed "CIA agent" to try to assassinate a high-ranking official in Iran.

They were 21-year old Mohsen Eslamian and Ali Asghar Pashtar, 20 -- both university students -- as well as Rouzbeh Yahyazadeh, 32.

The three were found guilty of being "mohareb" (enemies of God) and "corruption on the earth" by a revolutionary court in Tehran.

Iran hanged two other convicted members of the group in 2010, who had "confessed to obtaining explosives and planning to assassinate officials".

The statement issued on Saturday said that Tondar had plotted several other "big operations" which failed.

It said that Tondar had planned to blow up a dam in Shiraz, use "cyanide bombs" at a Tehran book fair, and plant an explosive device at the mausoleum of the republic's founder, Khomeini.

It was not clear how Iran arrested the US-based Sharmahd.

Iran's intelligence ministry announced the arrest of a former opposition figure in similarly mysterious circumstances in October last year.

Ruhollah Zam, described as a "counter-revolutionary" by Iranian authorities, was sentenced to death last month over "corruption on earth".

Zam, who reportedly lived in exile in Paris, ran a channel on the Telegram messaging application called Amadnews and was accused of sparking unrest during anti-government protests last year.



Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran executed Wednesday a man it said worked for Israel's foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the 2022 killing of a Revolutionary Guard colonel in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report identified the man as Mohsen Langarneshin and said he was hanged. It called him a “senior spy” for the Mossad, who provided “technical support” in the assassination of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
The agency said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal.
Langarneshin reportedly rented safe houses for operatives in several Iranian cities, including Isfahan, when, in January 2023, bomb-carrying drones targeted what Iran described as a military workshop. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the attack.
The report said Langarneshin confessed in Iran's Revolutionary court, which usually provides a court-appointed lawyer and doesn't allow media access.
At the time of his assassination, local media identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s Quds force that oversees foreign operations.