Latest news with #IranJudiciary
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Iran says it executed 9 Islamic State group militants detained after a 2018 attack
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran said Tuesday it executed nine militants of the Islamic State group detained after a 2018 attack. The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency announced the executions, saying that the death sentences had been upheld by the country's top court. It described the militants as being detained after they were in a clash in the country's western region with Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several IS fighters were killed. Authorities said they had seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the militants' hideout. Iran carries out executions by hanging. In the past eight months, it has executed an average of one person every six hours, according to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of advocacy group Iran Human Rights. He said Tuesday's executions were issued without fair trials and that there have been no updates about seven others reportedly detained in the 2018 attack. IS, which once held vast territory across Iraq and Syria in a self-described caliphate it declared in 2014, was ultimately beaten back by U.S.-led forces. It has since been in disarray, though it has mounted major assaults. In Iran's neighbor Afghanistan, for instance, IS is believed to have grown in strength since the fall of the Western-backed government there to the Taliban in 2021. The group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. It has claimed other attacks in Iran, including two suicide bombings in 2024 targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike. That assault killed at least 94 people. The clash with Revolutionary Guardsmen in 2018 marked a point of heightened tensions between Iran and the militant group. Iran launched ballistic missiles at parts of eastern Syria, vowing revenge after militants disguised themselves as soldiers and opened fire at a military parade in the Islamic Republic's southwest. That attack killed at least 25 people and was claimed by both IS and local separatists. But Tehran's hand in Syria was weakened with the fall last year of President Bashar Assad, a key ally. Analysts say IS could take advantage of the security vacuum to stage a comeback while Syria's new leaders are still consolidating their control over the country and forming a national army.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Iran Executes Man Over Deadly 2023 Attack on Azerbaijan Embassy
Iran on Wednesday executed a man who was convicted of murder after he stormed the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran in 2023 and killed its head of security, according to Mizan, the news outlet of the Iranian judiciary. The attack strained an already tense relationship between the two countries. Iran had said the man, an Iranian national named Yasin Hosseinzadeh, was motivated by personal issues, but President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan called it a terrorist attack. Mr. Hosseinzadeh was convicted of murder, and the death sentence was upheld by Iran's supreme court in January, according to state media. During the trial, the attacker told the court that he went to the embassy with an AK-47 assault rifle because he thought his wife was hiding there and was not willing to meet with him, the judiciary statement said. The relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan has long been fraught. Azerbaijan was upset by Iran's support for Armenia in a decades-long territorial conflict, while Iran has been suspicious of Azerbaijan's alliance with Turkey as well as its close ties with Israel. There were signs of a thaw between the neighboring countries last month. President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran visited Mr. Aliyev in Azerbaijan, and both leaders said the relationship had improved. The Iranian and Azerbaijani militaries also held joint military drills this week, Iranian state media reported. Azerbaijan closed its embassy in Tehran after the 2023 attack and withdrew its diplomatic staff. The embassy reopened last year in a new building after the attacker was sentenced. Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said in a statement at the time that Iran had taken appropriate security measures at the new embassy, but did not mention the attack.
