Iran’s security forces have killed the alleged mastermind of Wednesday’s terrorist attacks. The twin assault claimed 17 lives when four armed assailants raided the country’s Parliament while a suicide bomber struck at the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum.
“The mastermind and main commander of terrorist attacks on the parliament and Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini was killed today by the security forces,” intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency, Reuters reports.
The suspected orchestrator of the attack, who has not been named, was tracked down by Iranian intelligence after he had fled the country amid the ongoing crackdown by government forces.
Acting in cooperation with “friendly foreign intelligence services,” the Iranian team killed the suspect on Saturday, PressTV reported, citing the minister.
Two guards, ten government staffers and five civilians were killed in the Wednesday attacks which targeted the country’s parliament and shrine of the late founder of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Fifty-two others were injured in the attacks, according to the Interior Ministry.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly operation and threatened more attacks against Iran’s Shiite majority, triggering a massive manhunt for IS followers by Tehran.
Authorities said Saturday that they identified and arrested an IS-affiliated cell of some 60 members in the suburb of Tehran, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported.
“The terrorists were affiliated to the Wahabi and Takfiri groups who joined the Daesh terrorist group overseas and were red handed in the crimes of the terrorist group in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqah in Syria,” Commander of the Law Enforcement Force Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari said.
Authorities also announced the detention of eight suspects in the Alborz province, north of Tehran.
A day earlier, the Intelligence Ministry said they detained 41 members of the “Wahhabi IS group,” in Tehran and the western Kurdish provinces.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Friday that terrorist attacks would only increase Tehran’s hatred against the US and its “stooges” such as Saudi Arabia. The comments come just a day after Alavi said investigators were working to determine whether Riyadh had a hand in the attacks.