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Iran Executes Four Accused of Sabotage, Links to Israel's Mossad

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
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Iran Executes Four Accused of Sabotage, Links to Israel's Mossad

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Iran executed on Friday four people, including a woman, whom it accused of being "saboteurs" with links to Israel's Mossad intelligence service, the Mizan news agency affiliated to the judiciary said.
The executions took to five the number of people put to death this month in a decades-long shadow war that has seen Iran accuse Israel of attacks on its nuclear effort, charges the latter has never confirmed or denied.
"Four members of a sabotage team associated with the Zionist regime ... were executed this morning following legal procedures," the news agency said, accusing them of "extensive" actions, guided by Mossad officers, targeting Iran's security.
Friday's executions in West Azerbaijan province followed Iran's mid-December execution of a fifth accused Mossad agent in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, Reuters said.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency identified the four executed on Friday as Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, and Rahman Parhazo, along with the woman, named Nasim Namazi.
They were the principal convicts in a case that involved 10 offenders, it added, but it was not immediately clear if the rest would also face execution.
The official IRNA news agency posted a video clip nearly eight minutes in length, that showed the men confessing to their alleged co-operation with a Mossad officer in neighboring Türkiye, who used two names, Tony and Arash.
It said their mission entailed kidnappings, threatening and setting fire to vehicles and homes of unnamed targets and stealing their mobile phones.
Iranian intelligence put the group under close surveillance for at least four months, from around January 2022 until their arrest sometime that May, when they were "transferred from a neighboring country" to Iran, the video clip showed.
"They were training us for bigger assignments," an unidentified young man in a blue striped shirt said in the clip.
At the time of the arrests, Iranian media said the 10, who were in video communication with Mossad officers, "set fire to cars and homes of people affiliated with the security apparatus and received cash for taking photos they sent to Mossad agents".
Iran has accused Israel of carrying out several attacks on facilities linked to its nuclear program and of killing its nuclear scientists over the past years. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed the allegations.
In August, Iran accused Israel of being behind "one of the largest sabotage plots" targeting its defense industry and the production of missiles.
In July, its intelligence ministry said it had arrested a network of agents working for Israel before they were able to carry out sabotage in sensitive locations.
In January last year, Israel said it had broken up an Iranian spy ring that recruited Israeli women via the social media platform Facebook to photograph sensitive sites.
In April 2021, Tehran blamed an act of "nuclear terrorism" for a disruption of power at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility in the desert in the central province of Isfahan.

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North Korea is Again Flying Balloons Likely Carrying Trash toward South Korea

The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 
The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 
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North Korea is Again Flying Balloons Likely Carrying Trash toward South Korea

The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 
The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 

North Korea again launched a raft of balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on Wednesday, Seoul officials said, the 10th such balloon incident in less than two months following South Korea's resumption of frontline propaganda broadcasts.

The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences, The AP reported.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the North Korean balloons are flying north of Seoul on Wednesday morning after crossing the border. It urged the South Korean people to be alert for falling objects.

Since late May, North Korea has floated more than 2,000 rubbish-carrying balloons on a series of launch events, dropping waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure on South Korea. North Korea has argued its balloon campaigns are a response to South Korean activists scattering political leaflets across the border via their own balloons.

Experts say North Korea considers South Korean civilian leafleting activities a major threat to its efforts to crack down on the inflow of foreign news. In furious responses to past South Korean leafletting, North Korea destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in its territory in 2020 and fired at incoming balloons in 2014.

The North’s balloon flying hasn’t caused major damages in South Korea. But it has caused security jitters among many people who think North Korea could use balloons to drop more hazardous materials like chemical and biological agents next time.

South Korea said Sunday it was bolstering its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from its loudspeakers along the land border because North Korea was continuing launches of trash-carrying balloons.

The latest South Korean broadcasts included K-pop songs and news on BTS member Jin’s torch-bearing ahead of the Paris Olympics and the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat. The broadcasts also called the mine-planting works by North Korean soldiers at the border “hellish, slave-like lives,” according to South Korean media.

Experts say South Korean propaganda broadcasts can demoralize frontline North Korean troops and residents, posing a blow to the North’s efforts to limit access to outside news for its 26 million people. South Korean officials have previously said broadcasts from their loudspeakers can travel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) during the day and 24 kilometers (15 miles) at night.