IRGC Foils Terrorists’ Plan for Suicide Attacks in Iran

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) disbanded a terrorist cell recently which intended to carry out suicide attacks in Sistan and Balouchestan province, Southeastern Iran, an IRGC statement said.

The IRGC Ground Force’s Quds base had informed in a statement on Monday that it had “disbanded a terrorist group affiliated to the foreign spy agencies in Qasr-e Qand and Nikshahr regions in Southeastern Iran, and killed all its members”.

The Monday statement added that “the operations were carried out after a series of reconnaissance and chase operations in recent days during which a large cache of weapons, munitions and communication tools were also discovered and seized by the IRGC forces”.

Now other sources informed today that the terrorist group was identified three months ago and the IRGC has carried out three-phased military operations to disband the group.

The first phase of the operations was fulfilled to prevent the terrorist group’s suicide attack during the February 11 rallies (to commemorate the anniversary of the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution) in Sistan and Balouchestan province and the suicide bombers were arrested.

The second phase of the IRGC’s intelligence and military operations was aimed at preventing the terrorist group’s preplanned suicide attack during Nourowz days (during which the Iranian new year started on March 21 is celebrated). In the operations, a number of terrorists were arrested and over 150kg of munitions were discovered and seized from them.

And in the final phase, after identifying the main hideout of the terrorists in Qasr-e Qand district in Balouchestan region, the terrorist group was completely disbanded.

In January, the Iranian police also said that its forces had disbanded a terrorist network in Sistan and Balouchestan province.

“After a number of sabotage operations in the Southern part of Sistan and Balouchestan province, 18 members of a terrorist grouplet were arrested in Eastern Iran as a result of three months of round-the-clock efforts by the police forces and the good cooperation of the people in the province,” Commander of the Law Enforcement Police in Sistan and Balouchestan Hossein Rahimi told reporters.

Elaborating on the police operations which led to the capture of the terrorists, he said at first two members of the terrorist group were apprehended and their confessions led to the capture of the other members of the group.

“They confessed that they had conducted different operations against the people and the police and received money from a person an Arab state,” Rahimi said.

In earlier remarks in November, Rahimi announced that his forces had arrested the terrorists who had killed two police officers in Zahedan city a year ago.

“The crime investigation detectives of the police found some clues about the involvement of a 6-stong gang of armed thieves in this case after months of extensive specialized measures and after gaining enough intelligence,” he said.

Noting that the members of the gang used forged documents to travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the commander said that the police forces identified the culprits and arrested them in several coordinated operations in Zahedan and Chabahar cities.

Rahimi said that the gang members had confessed that they had killed the two police officers in Zahedan city on 17 June 2013, wounded two people one month earlier, murdered two individuals in Zahedan’s Park Mellat, robbed the passengers of a car and wounded three people when they sprayed bullet at the people who had approached the car.

Sistan and Balouchestan province which is adjacent to Pakistan has been the scene of a number of terrorist attacks in recent years with most terrorists escaping to the Pakistani territories.