IRGC Cracks Down on Terror Cell in Southeastern Iran

Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces’ Quds Base Brigadier General Mohammad Marani made the remarks on Monday.

Noting that 4 terrorist groups have been traced and busted in Sistan and Balouchestan province since the start of the current Iranian year (March 20), he said, “One of these groups, led by Amanollah Rayeesi, was dismantled in the final days of (the holy month of) Ramadan and 150kg of explosives was seized from them.”

“During the clashes with members of the grouplet which was affiliated to Forqan (terrorist group), four of them were killed on the scene and 9 others, including Amanollah Rayeesi, were arrested,” General Marani told reporters.

Earlier this month, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced that the country’s security forces have defused the terrorists’ plots to blow up a military base used both by the Law Enforcement Police and the IRGC in Eastern Iran.

“As I said before, the terrorists sought to blow up one of the bases which was both used by the Law Enforcement Police and the IRGC,” Rahmani Fazli said.

“The terrorists had dug a tunnel to this end, but were stopped before taking any action,” he added.

Rahmani Fazli had announced late July that the country’s security forces discovered a secret tunnel in Eastern Iran that the terrorists sought to use for sabotage operations.

“Two nights before, we discovered a 40-meter tunnel in the 20-meter depth of the earth in the Eastern parts of the country and they (the terrorists) intended to use it secretly in ripe conditions for conducting explosion and other operations,” Rahmani Fazli said, addressing a forum in Tehran last month.

“40 people were arrested in this regard,” he added, but declined to provide any further details.

In a relevant remarks in July, an informed source also said that the Iranian security forces dismantled a terrorist cell in Sistan and Balouchestan.

“Members of a team which sought to carry out sabotage acts and blow up different places in Khash were identified and arrested,” the source said.

In the same region in June, the Iranian security forces arrested a member of Ansar al-Forqan terrorist group.

“During the Law Enforcement Police’s clashes with members of a terrorist group in Khash in the last (Iranian) month (of Khordad – mid June), several people were killed but one of them was arrested alive and his confessions showed that these people were members of Ansar al-Forqan terrorist grouplet,” said Mohammad Marziyeh, the general-prosecutor of Zahedan city.

A senior Iranian police commander announced on June 13 that the country’s Law Enforcement troops have dismantled a terrorist cell in Sistan and Balouchestan province after killing five of them in fierce clashes.

“The members of the terrorist group who had come to the region on a sabotage mission were trapped by the police,” Commander of Sistan and Balouchestan province’s Police Force Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi said.

He noted that five terrorists were killed and two others are at large in the city of Khash in Sistan and Balouchestan province, and said, “One Iranian Law Enforcement soldier was also killed during the clashes with the terrorists.”

Brigadier General Rahimi said that a large amount of explosives and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were also seized from the terrorists.