31 August 2023; MEMO: The Iranian authorities revealed details of the dismantling of a cell affiliated with Israel’s Mossad spy agency yesterday. The cell is said to have been operating in four provinces. According to the Ministry of Security and Intelligence in Tehran, it included 14 people and was shut down in mid-August.
The ministry said that 43 bombs ready to be detonated were found in the possession of the people accused of being members of the group. Their nationality was not revealed, although it was pointed out that figures involved in the case live in Germany and Turkiye.
Reports on the Nournews website, which is close to the Iranian government, named the cell leader as Shahin Zahmtaksh, an Iranian residing in Denmark, who is under a sentence of death. His father is a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, said the website. Another person associated with the role of supervising and directing the cell was named as Samek Tadin Tahmasbi, an Iranian dissident living in the Netherlands.
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Iranian security officials also stated that it found Goryunov machine guns, official Iranian military and police force uniforms, and walkie talkies. The cell’s goal was apparently to bomb Shia gatherings during Ashura commemoration ceremonies in the provinces of Tehran, Kerman, Isfahan, Kogeliviyeh, Boyer Ahmad, Kurdistan and Mazandaran. There is also said to have been a plan to bomb the shrine of the late commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone attack at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
The Iranian ministry’s statement covered the announcement of the dismantling of a Mossad cell for the second month in a row. Individuals alleged to have cooperated with Mossad were arrested in July. Tehran also announced the dismantling of other cells in May and March. It added that the person who targeted the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz weeks ago was also linked to an Israeli spy cell.
