Iran foiled major IS plot ahead of holy month

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.

کد خبر: ۷۳۰۱۱۷

تاریخ: ۲۳ شهريور ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۰:۳۶

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.”

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/09/iran-isis-muharram-attack-arrest-syrian-shahriar-irgc.html#ixzz4sd9eS7TX