Iran State TV Identifies Man It Says Was Behind Blast at Natanz Nuclear Site

This satellite photo provided from Planet Labs Inc. shows Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (AP)
This satellite photo provided from Planet Labs Inc. shows Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (AP)
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Iran State TV Identifies Man It Says Was Behind Blast at Natanz Nuclear Site

This satellite photo provided from Planet Labs Inc. shows Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (AP)
This satellite photo provided from Planet Labs Inc. shows Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (AP)

Iran named a suspect Saturday in the attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that damaged centrifuges there, saying he had fled the country before the sabotage happened.

State television named the suspect as 43-year-old Reza Karimi. It showed a passport-style photograph of a man it identified as Karimi, saying he was born in the nearby city of Kashan, Iran.

The report did not elaborate how Karimi would have gotten access to one of the most secure facilities in the Islamic Republic, The Associated Press reported.

The report also aired what appeared to be an Interpol “red notice” seeking his arrest. The arrest notice was not immediately accessible on Interpol's public-facing database.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The TV report said “necessary actions” are underway to bring him back to Iran through legal channels, without elaborating.

The report also showed centrifuges in a hall, as well as what appeared to be caution tape up at the Natanz facility.

The attack Sunday, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, has inflamed a shadow war between the two nations.

Iran has begun enriching a small amount of uranium up to 60% purity — its highest level ever — in response amid talks in Vienna aimed at saving its tattered nuclear deal with world powers.



Iran Says it Executed 9 ISIS Militants Detained after a 2018 Attack

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
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Iran Says it Executed 9 ISIS Militants Detained after a 2018 Attack

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Iran said Tuesday it executed nine militants of ISIS group detained after a 2018 attack.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency announced the executions, saying that the death sentences had been upheld by the country’s top court, The AP news reported.

It described the militants as being detained after they were in a clash in the country's western region with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several ISIS militants were killed. Authorities said they had seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the militants' hideout.

Iran carries out executions by hanging. In the past eight months, it has executed an average of one person every six hours, according to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of advocacy group Iran Human Rights.

He said Tuesday's executions were issued without fair trials and that there have been no updates about seven others reportedly detained in the 2018 attack.

ISIS, which once held vast territory across Iraq and Syria in a self-described caliphate it declared in 2014, was ultimately beaten back by US-led forces.

It has since been in disarray, though it has mounted major assaults. In Iran's neighbor Afghanistan, for instance, ISIS is believed to have grown in strength since the fall of the Western-backed government there to the Taliban in 2021.

The group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. It has claimed other attacks in Iran, including two suicide bombings in 2024 targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 US drone strike. That assault killed at least 94 people.

The clash with Revolutionary Guardsmen in 2018 marked a point of heightened tensions between Iran and the militant group. Iran launched ballistic missiles at parts of eastern Syria, vowing revenge after militants disguised themselves as soldiers and opened fire at a military parade in the Islamic Republic’s southwest. That attack killed at least 25 people and was claimed by both ISIS and local separatists.