Roundup: Iran says foils major bombing plot targetting, Tehran, other major cities

Iran's announcement on Monday of foiling a major bombing plot is believed to be the latest victory in its efforts to boost security across the Islamic republic.

The Intelligence Ministry, in a statement carried by local media outlets, said the intelligence services recently thwarted "one of the biggest terrorist plots" targeting Tehran and other cities.

"In this criminal plot, a terrorist group had schemed to carry out a series of bombings in different parts of the country, including in Tehran," state-run IRINN TV quoted the statement as saying.

"In the operations by the Intelligence Ministry, the terrorists were detained and a number of bombs, ready to explode, and a sizeable amount of materials for making bombs were seized from the terrorists," the statement said.

Further information about the terrorist plot will be announced in the following days as the investigation process advances, it added.

Also on Monday, Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani said that "the Iranian authorities had suspected several people of trying to launch bomb attacks in Tehran."

The plotters, who planned to carry out attacks in the holy month of Ramadan, were arrested over the past few days, Shamkhani was quoted as saying by semi-official Fars news agency.

"The capable and experienced security forces of Iran are able to foil any terrorist act in any part of the country," he said.

He said Takfiri terrorist groups seek to sow discord among Muslims.

Last week, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said that its forces smashed two "terrorist" cells and killed 12 terrorists in northwestern Iran.

Three members of the IRGC also died in the clashes with "counter-revolutionary terrorist groups" on Wednesday, the IRGC said in a statement on Thursday.

A sizeable supply of ammunition, equipment and documents were also captured in the operations, according to the statement.

Following the incursion of two terrorist teams into the country from the border region of Oshnavieh in Iran's northwestern province of West Azarbaijan on Wednesday, the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada headquarters of the ground forces of the IRGC managed to identify and bust them thanks to the intelligence and military operations, said the statement.

A report by Fars news agency said on Thursday that the "terrorists" belonged to outlawed "counter-revolutionary terrorist groups," including the Kurdish Democratic Party, who had crossed the northwestern borders into the country.

On June 13, Press TV also reported that Iranian security forces killed five Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group members in the southeastern provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan.

Jaish al-Adl, which in Arabic translates to the Army of Justice, is a Sunni rebel group attempting to fight for the rights of Sunni Muslims in the Iranian provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, and was responsible for numerous attacks against Iran's border posts.

Police spokesman Saeed Montazer-al-Mahdi said the terrorists had planned to conduct terror attacks and that Iranian security forces confiscated substantial amounts of ammunition from them.

The terrorists were killed during the clashes with police, Al-Mahdi said, adding that a policeman was also killed during the clashes, according to Press TV.

On June 13, the IRGC said they also disabled a terrorist group in the northwest of the country, killing five terrorists, all all members of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK).

The PJAK is an Iranian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and the five terrorists were killed in an ambush near the city of Sardasht in Iran's northwestern province of West Azerbaijan along the border with Turkey, the IRGC said on its website.

The IRGC added that the PJAK members were also behind the "martyrdom" of three members from the local Basiji militia forces. Endit