Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced that a member of the Islamic State (IS) who was seeking to organize a new series of attacks has been arrested in Tehran province.
Col.
Amin Yamini, the IRGC commander in Shahriar, a suburb of the capital,
Tehran, said Sept. 13 that a member of Ajnad Al-Sham, the Syrian branch
of IS, has been detained and was planning to organize 300 terrorists to
carry out suicide attacks during the holy month of Muharram.
Muḥarram is the first month of the Islamic calendar and starts Oct.
1. During this holy month, Shiites in Iran hold memorial ceremonies to
mourn the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet of Islam,
who was martyred by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid in the Battle of Karbala in
680 A.D.
The IRGC commander added that Iranian security forces had disguised
themselves as IS terrorists and contacted the target to set a meeting
with him.
"This member of Ajnad al-Sham belonging to IS has made remarkable
confessions so far and had sought to organize 300 terrorists to carry
out suicide operations during the mourning days of Muharram,” said the
IRGC commander.
He continued, "Very important information has been extracted from his
cellphone, and currently, the unknown soldiers of the IRGC intelligence
organization are interrogating him.” By "unknown soldiers,” he means
the security forces whose identities must be kept hidden.
"The security and intelligence apparatus of the holy system of the
Islamic Republic of Iran is monitoring the movements of these currents
and terrorist groups precisely, and [at] the time [the terrorists]
arrive in Iran, [the security forces] monitor and control all of their
actions and movements,” said Col. Yamini, adding that "sometimes the
operation to capture [the terrorists] are done with delay in order for
the identifying process of the leaders and associates of [terrorist
groups] to be completed.”
