Iran Arrests 26 Foreigners over Deadly Shiraz Attack

Iranians march during a protest condemning the Shiraz attack and unrest in Tehran (Reuters)
Iranians march during a protest condemning the Shiraz attack and unrest in Tehran (Reuters)
TT

Iran Arrests 26 Foreigners over Deadly Shiraz Attack

Iranians march during a protest condemning the Shiraz attack and unrest in Tehran (Reuters)
Iranians march during a protest condemning the Shiraz attack and unrest in Tehran (Reuters)

Iran has arrested 26 foreign nationals over their alleged involvement in a deadly attack claimed by ISIS on a shrine, the intelligence ministry said Monday.

At least 13 people were killed on October 26 in an armed attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz, according to an official toll.

"The intelligence ministry has identified and arrested all agents involved in the terrorist operation in Shiraz," said a statement published on the ministry's website.

According to the statement, the 26 are from Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

They were arrested in the provinces of Fars, Tehran, Alborz, Kerman, Qom and Razavi Khorasan, as well as along Iran's "eastern border", AFP quoted the ministry as saying.

The perpetrator of the attack in Shiraz, identified by the intelligence ministry as Sobhan Komrouni, died of wounds sustained while he was being arrested.

The ministry said he was "a Tajik national" known as Abu Aisha.

It added that the main coordinator of attacks in Iran, an Azeri national, was also arrested, having entered the country through Tehran's international airport from Baku.

He had been in contact with an ISIS network abroad after arriving in Tehran, it added.

On October 31, the ministry announced that several others had been arrested, including an "operational support element" identified Monday as Mohammed Ramez Rashidi, an Afghan national.



Gunmen Kill 6 People, including Local IRGC Chief, in Iran Towns

A billboard bearing a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, is displayed in Tehran on September 30, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A billboard bearing a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, is displayed in Tehran on September 30, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT

Gunmen Kill 6 People, including Local IRGC Chief, in Iran Towns

A billboard bearing a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, is displayed in Tehran on September 30, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A billboard bearing a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, is displayed in Tehran on September 30, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Unidentified gunmen killed six people in two separate attacks Tuesday in the same province in southern Iran, including a local chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), state TV reported.

The head of a town council and two volunteer members of the Guard were also among the dead in the first attack, it said. It occurred after the victims participated in a school ceremony in Nikshahar town, about 1,350 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tehran, the report said.

It identified the town council chief as Parviz Kadkhodaei but provided no other details of the attack in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, The Associated Press reported.

Two police officers were killed in the second attack, which took place in Khash town in the same province, it said.

No one immediately took responsibility for the attacks.
In September, gunmen killed four border guards in the province in two separate attacks. The militant group Jaish al-Adl, which seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority, claimed responsibility for one of the attacks, in which one officer and two soldiers in the border guard were killed.