Iran has arrested about 500 people accused of sharing information with foreign enemies, the Islamic Republic’s police chief said on Sunday.
This is as Israeli and the United States fighter jets continue striking new targets across the country.
According to the Iran Police Chief, Ahmadreza Radan, half of the cases involved serious incidents, including people suspected of passing intelligence used to hit targets and others who filmed strike locations and sent the footage abroad.
“Half of those cases had involved serious incidents ‘including people who provided information for hitting targets and individuals who took footage of strike locations and sent them,’” Radan said, without going into detail on when the arrests took places.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian media reported dozens of arrests in different regions.
In northwestern Iran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said 20 people were arrested following accusations by the provincial prosecutor’s office that they had sent location details of Iran’s military and security assets to Israel.
In northeastern Iran, an area largely untouched by recent air strikes, Tasnim reported the arrest of 10 people. Some of them were accused of gathering information on sensitive sites and economic infrastructure.
“As the Zionist enemy (Israel) and the U.S. are attempting to invade Iran, they simultaneously activate mercenaries and spies to carry out riots as the next step,” a provincial branch of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organisation said, according to Tasnim.
The Student News Network also reported that three people were detained in the western province of Lorestan for “seeking to disturb public opinion … and burn mourning symbols.”
Meanwhile, Israel has begun targeting security checkpoints based on tip-offs from informants on the ground, marking a new phase in its assault on Iran, a source briefed on Israel’s military strategy told Reuters this week.
According to Reuters, the arrests come months after widespread anti-government protests in Iran in January, weeks before the United States (U.S.) and Israel launched the ongoing war against the country.
The demonstrations were suppressed in what authorities described as the deadliest crackdown in the Islamic Republic’s history.
Iranian officials blamed Israel and the United States for encouraging what they described as “violent riots” aimed at toppling the country’s clerical leadership.
(Reuters)