Iran says ISIL members planning Eid al-Fitr ‘suicide attack’ arrested
Al Jazeera
ISIL claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Kerman this year that had killed nearly 100 people.
Iran says it has arrested members of the ISIL (ISIS) group who were planning an attack at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A concerned citizen called law enforcement in Mahdasht in the province of Alborz, about 60km (37 miles) west of the capital Tehran, which led to the arrest of “senior” ISIL member Mohammad “Ramesh” Zaker, police spokesman Saeed Montazerolmahdi said on Saturday.
Zaker and two other ISIL members were taken into custody, he said, adding that eight people accompanying the “terrorists planning a suicide attack” next week during Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, were arrested.
In January, twin bombings during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the assassination of top commander Qassem Soleimani in the southeastern city of Kerman killed nearly 100 people and wounded more than 200.
The Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) – the Afghanistan-based branch of ISIL behind last month’s attack on a concert hall near Moscow that killed at least 144 people – claimed responsibility for the Kerman assault.
