Israel announces exposure of Iranian terror network targeting Israelis abroad |
Israel in recent months exposed an Iranian terror network that targeted Israeli officials and assets around the world, according to a joint statement Monday by the Mossad, Israel Defense Forces, and Shin Bet.
Senior operatives in the network were killed during the US-Israeli campaign against Iran that began on February 28.
The Israeli statement said the network was uncovered following the arrests of several members of the network in Azerbaijan in March.
Azerbaijan said last month that it had foiled a series of Iranian terror attacks on its territory, including ones targeting the Israeli embassy in Baku, a synagogue and Jewish community leaders. At least seven Azeri nationals were arrested in connection with the probe.
In a statement, Azerbaijan’s state security service said at the time that it had “prevented terrorist acts and intelligence operations in Azerbaijan organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”
Also among the planned targets was the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through neighboring Georgia and Turkey and carries around a third of Israel’s oil imports, it said.
According to Monday’s Israeli statement, members of the cell had smuggled explosive drones into Azerbaijan and were gathering intelligence on potential targets under the direct instructions of their Iranian handlers.
The arrests of the cell members led to the uncovering of the terror network and its chain of command.
Rahman Moqadam, head of the Special Operations Division (4000) within IRGC intelligence, was in charge of the network. He was killed at the beginning of the war with Iran, known in Israel as Operation Roaring Lion.
Moqadam recruited and trained operatives both inside and outside of Iran, and asked them to gather intelligence on Israeli political leaders, security officials, Israeli and Western military installations, ports, and Israeli ships around the world.
Moqadam served under senior IRGC intelligence official Majid Khademi, Israel said. Khademi was also killed by Israel during the war.
A central player in Moqadam’s network was Mohsen Suri, another member of Division 4000, who met with terror cells outside of Iran. He too was killed during the war in an Israeli strike on an IRGC safehouse.
Mahdi Yekeh-Dehghan led the network in Azerbaijan and beyond. His role was discovered in January, when Turkish authorities arrested six people, including an Iranian national, on charges of political and military espionage for Iran, after coordinated raids across five provinces. Yekeh-Deghan directed the cell, working to smuggle explosive drones from Iran through Turkey to Cyprus, and to gather intelligence on US forces at Turkey’s Incirlik Base.
The Israeli statement noted that in the wake of the US-Israeli war against Iran, the IRGC has redoubled its efforts to establish terror cells abroad and carry out attacks.
Throughout the course of the war, European countries have stepped up their domestic security efforts over rising fears that Iran would try to orchestrate terror attacks on their soil in retribution.
Since February 28, Europe has seen a string of attacks, largely targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions, including a blast that caused damage to a synagogue in Belgium and an arson attack on four ambulances run by the Jewish medical charity Hatzolah in London. Several of the attacks have been claimed by the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya group, a newly established Iran-linked terror organization.
Additionally, last December, the IDF said troops arrested several members of a terror cell deployed by Iran in southern Syria, targeting the group based on intelligence gathered in the weeks leading up to the raid.
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