- Iran arrests ISIL members planning Ramadan attack
- Threat coincides with regional tensions from Gaza conflict
- Iranian officials vow retaliation against Israel for Damascus attack
Iran has reportedly apprehended ISIL (ISIS) members who were preparing an assault to occur during the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Authorities in Mahdasht, Alborz province, located approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Tehran, were alerted by a concerned citizen. As a result, Mohammad “Ramesh” Zaker, a “senior” ISIL member, was apprehended, according to police spokesman Saeed Montazerolmahdi on Saturday.
Eight individuals were apprehended, he added, who were accompanying the “terrorists planning a suicide attack” the week following Eid al-Fitr, the occasion commemorating the conclusion of Ramadan, along with Zaker and two other ISIL members.
During a January ceremony in the southeastern city of Kerman commemorating the anniversary of the assassination of top commander Qassem Soleimani, nearly one hundred people were slain, and over two hundred were injured in twin bombings.
The responsibility for the attack on Kerman was attributed to the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), an Afghanistan-based division of ISIL that was responsible for the concert hall attack near Moscow last month, which resulted in the loss of at least 144 lives.
In January, 35 individuals were apprehended by Iran about the attacks, 35 of whom were ISIS-K commanders.
Attacks on a prominent Shia shrine in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz were also orchestrated by the group. Following a conviction, Iran subsequently executed two assailants in public.
ISIL claimed responsibility for 2017 deadly assaults on the Iranian parliament and the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme commander of the Islamic Republic.
The organization is particularly active in sectarian violence within Iran and other predominantly Shia regions of the area.
The threat of a second assault coincides with Iran’s increased security concerns and the escalation of regional tensions caused by Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Teams of armed men affiliated with the separatist Sunni organization Jaish al-Adl stormed two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases in the southeastern border province of Sistan-Baluchestan on Thursday.
On Saturday, funeral rites were observed in the hometowns of armed forces personnel who lost their lives to Jaish al-Adl. These rites took place in the provinces of Lorestan in the west and Mazandaran in the north.
Funeral rites were observed in Tehran, Isfahan, and Lorestan in remembrance of seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel lost in an Israeli assault in Syria that destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
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Senior IRGC commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was slain in the Damascus attack, was interred on Saturday in Isfahan, central Iran, his place of birth.
Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, addressed an audience in Tehran on Saturday. He stated, “The cruel and child-killing Zionists and the criminal United States must be aware that the regime [Israel] is nearing its demise, and nothing will remain of it until it disintegrates and is destroyed.”
“As a protected mission under international agreements, airstrikes against a consulate are pointless for the Zionist regime, which is self-destructive and self-harming. It is an act of insanity.” “This action destroyed any remaining credibility Israeli politicians had,” he said, reiterating Iran’s threat of vengeance against the Israeli commanders that were slain.
