Iran intelligence forces bust MKO-linked sabotage team
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence forces have disbanded a sabotage team affiliated with the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in the country’s northern province of Mazandaran over involvement in last year’s foreign-backed riots.
The IRGC commander in Babolsar City, Mostafa Bazvand, made the announcement on Monday, saying the team was operating in the northern city with the aim of deceiving young people.
Bazvand added that the ringleaders of the team were in direct contact with foreign-based groups and were involved in acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks.
Ever since the unrest erupted in the country, the team would feed anti-Iran Persian-language television networks based in the United States and Britain with video footage and other materials, and would also deceive the youngsters, the IRGC commander noted.
He added that they were detained by IRGC intelligence units, and their social media accounts have been suspended as well.
Riots broke out in Iran in mid-September last year when 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini died in a hospital in the capital Tehran, three days after she collapsed at a police station. An investigation later attributed Amini’s death to her pre-existing medical condition, rather than alleged beatings by the police.
The MKO has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials over the past three decades. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the acts of terror carried out by the MKO.
The group was viewed by the EU as a terrorist organization until January 2009, when the EU Council lifted the designation under immense pressure from political lobbies. The decision was followed by the United States in September 2012.
