Iran’s intelligence ministry said Thursday it had arrested 10 Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group suspects who were planning attacks targeting religious commemorations, days ahead of the major Shiite mourning ritual of Ashura.
The ministry said that "10 ISIS terrorists," using another name for the Islamic State group, had been arrested, adding that they had been "sent to carry out several terror operations among the mourners."
Two intelligence agents were maimed in a shootout during the arrests, it added.
Iran
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...also accused arch-foe Israel of using the jihadists as attackers, claiming the men were sent following "last week’s big failure in the earth-shattering kaboom of a sensitive center" that it blamed on "separatist terrorists." Following that failed attack, Iran’s intelligence ministry on July 27 said it had arrested agents linked to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, who were also members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group.
"The Zionist criminal regime... this time around, tried to carry out its terrorist operations through takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...IS teams," the statement added, referring to Israel.
Iran is currently commemorating the first 10 days of the Islamic holy month of Muharram, culminating in Ashura on Monday, when worshipers throng mosques and take part in processions. Ashura marks the death of the revered Shiite Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
The intelligence ministry said the men had entered from neighboring Iraq and
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
, and were arrested in operations over the past three days in western and southern Iran.
A report on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed equipment reportedly confiscated from the suspects, including a sniper rifle, knives, phones and laptop computers. It also showed one of the arrested men, who was blindfolded.
The ministry called the men "takfiris," a term usually used in Iran and other countries to refer to Sunni holy warriors. Iran has been involved in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria through military "advisers."
In June 2017, the Islamic State claimed a twin attack targeting the Iranian parliament complex and the mausoleum of the founder of the first supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people.
Last June, Iran hanged a Sunni holy warrior who was sentenced to death for killing two Shiite holy mans and wounding another in April, with officials blaming "takfiri elements" for the attack.