Report: Iranian Police Arrest Man after Attack on Cleric

An Iranian walks next to a wall painting of Iran’s national flag at a street in Tehran, Iran, 02 June 2022. (EPA)
An Iranian walks next to a wall painting of Iran’s national flag at a street in Tehran, Iran, 02 June 2022. (EPA)
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Report: Iranian Police Arrest Man after Attack on Cleric

An Iranian walks next to a wall painting of Iran’s national flag at a street in Tehran, Iran, 02 June 2022. (EPA)
An Iranian walks next to a wall painting of Iran’s national flag at a street in Tehran, Iran, 02 June 2022. (EPA)

Iranian security forces on Friday arrested a young man following an assault on a top provincial cleric in the central city of Isfahan, Iranian media reported. The cleric appeared unharmed in a video broadcast after the attack.

According to the semiofficial Fars news agency, the unidentified man accosted prayer leader Yousef Tababaeinejad as he was talking with some worshipers after Friday prayers and attempted to stab him in the neck with a "sharp metal object."

The report said mosque guards quickly detained the him and added that the case is under investigation.

A video on Iranian media later showed Tababaeinejad speaking to a reporter afterward and saying the assailant seemed to be a young man, in his 20s.

Such attacks are uncommon in Iran though in the early 1980s, clerics were targeted by armed opposition groups, mostly during or after Friday prayers. Over the past months, there have been chants against clerics during protest gatherings in Iran over price hikes and the slashing of subsidies by the government.

In early April, a stabbing attack in the revered Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad killed three clerics.

Tababaeinejad, a hard-line cleric appointed by the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is known as a vocal opponent of social media and music, saying they are part of the West's software war against Islamic beliefs.



Ground Stops Lift at Ottawa, Montreal Airports over Bomb Threats

The Montreal city skyline is seen from Mont Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 31, 2018. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/File Photo
The Montreal city skyline is seen from Mont Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 31, 2018. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/File Photo
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Ground Stops Lift at Ottawa, Montreal Airports over Bomb Threats

The Montreal city skyline is seen from Mont Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 31, 2018. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/File Photo
The Montreal city skyline is seen from Mont Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 31, 2018. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/File Photo

Ground stops were lifted at international airports in Ottawa and Montreal after a bomb threat on Thursday briefly halted departing flights, a US Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said.

The Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport said on X that it was investigating a security incident and warned that operations may be disrupted, urging travelers to check their flight status, Reuters reported.

Air traffic control manager NAV Canada said in a statement that it was made aware of bomb threats affecting several of its facilities.

It said employees at affected locations were safely evacuated and that travelers may face delays.

The Ottawa Police Service also said on X that it was investigating a security incident at the Ottawa airport.