A Member of Parliament: 40 ISIS Members Arrested in West Azerbaijan Province

Nader Ghazipur, a representative from Urmia in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced the identification and arrest of 40 members of the group known as ISIS in West Azerbaijan Province. On Tuesday, June 30, he told the 'Mellat' news agency, affiliated with the Iranian parliament, that these individuals were arrested by agents of the West Azerbaijan Intelligence Department. He stated that the arrests took place in the cities of Piranshahr, Sardasht, Mahabad, Boukan, and Takab. The MP also mentioned that a 'large quantity of weapons and ammunition' was discovered and seized from the arrested individuals. According to this MP, 'the leaders of these terrorist elements intended to carry out operations during the nights of Qadr, which were thwarted in time.' On the other hand, the political-security deputy governor of Qom also reported the arrest of a 'terrorist team' in Qom city. According to ISNA news agency, Ahmad Jamali, without providing details on the number of members of this team, stated that 'Qom city is one of the main targets of ISIS's terrorist planning.' He added: 'During the terrorist operations in Tehran, the ISIS terrorist team was arrested in Qom by security and police forces.' Following two deadly attacks by several members of the Islamic State group on June 17 at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which left 17 dead and 52 injured, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence engaged with some armed opposition groups at Iran's borders. As reported by Iranian media, in these clashes, which began with an attack by security forces, several members of ISIS were killed or arrested. Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, also reported in a speech before this week's Friday prayers in Mashhad that 'terrorists' were planning to detonate two tons of explosives during the nights of 'Qadr' in Tehran, which, according to him, 'were thwarted in Chabahar.' Rezaei added that 'after losing hope in their actions, the terrorists resorted to firecrackers in a trash can.' His reference was to reports of a bombing on the night of the 21st of Ramadan at the shrine of 'Hazrat Abd al-Azim' in the city of Rey, which, according to the IRIB news agency, 'caused panic and dispersed the worshippers.' The news agency reported that on this night, an individual shouted 'Allahu Akbar,' which 'increased the likelihood of a terrorist act among the night worshippers' and 'the observance of the acts of the night of Qadr was somewhat disrupted.' According to this report, the individual (the one who shouted the takbir) was arrested, and his motives for this action are still unclear. Another report indicated an explosion during the same ceremony, at which time the Tehran police announced that the sound was 'caused by the explosion of a homemade firecracker, and a 17-year-old teenager was also arrested as a suspect in this regard.' The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on June 28 that in retaliation for ISIS's attacks on Tehran, six missiles were fired at the group's positions in northeastern Syria. In this context, the Iranian police reported the killing of 'four armed criminals' affiliated with ISIS, the arrest of an individual who 'had installed an ISIS flag on the Fasa Bridge in Shiraz,' and Iran reported the killing of two members of a 'terrorist group' and the arrest of five others. The IRGC announced the destruction of an armed group in Sistan and Baluchestan and reported the 'neutralization' of a 'terrorist team' in Iran. 'The IRGC's missile attack on the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria' was in retaliation for the attacks in Tehran. The IRGC threatened ISIS with continued missile attacks.