Iran says it dismantled group with ties to Israel's Mossad

TEHRAN: Iran claimed on Saturday that its intelligence agents dismantled a group linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad, which had allegedly planned terror operations inside Iran. According to Iran's state-run TV, members of the group had entered Iran from an unspecified neighbouring country's Kurdish-populated area. Both Turkey and Iraq have a minority Kurdish population living alongside the Iranian border.

The report also said Iranian forces arrested all members of the group and confiscated a large amount of weapons, explosives, and technical and communication equipment belonging to the group in several operations across Iran. The TV said the group planned sabotage actions and “unprecedented terrorist operations” in several “sensitive areas'' — a likely reference to military and security installations. The report did not elaborate.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Western Iran, along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists, as well as militants linked to the extremist Islamic State group. Last month, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted the prosecutor of Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province as alleging that three people arrested in April there on suspicion of working with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency had wanted to kill Iranian nuclear scientists. In May, an unexplained incident struck the Parchin military complex, a major military and weapons development base east of Tehran, killing an engineer and injuring another employee. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard later said the incident was a case of “industrial sabotage.”