Iran arrests 8 foreigners for allged links to ‘foreign intelligence services’ amid US tensions

By Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) – Iranian authorities arrested eight foreigners in the country’s southeast for alleged links to “foreign intelligence services,” local media reported on Wednesday.

The semi-official Mehr News Agency said three other foreigners were also killed during a security operation on Iran’s southeastern border.

Authorities did not specify the nationality of those detained or killed in the raid.

Mehr said large quantities of assorted weapons were uncovered and confiscated from their hideouts and targeted safe houses, including RPG-7 launchers, US-made M4 rifles fitted with night-vision devices, several AK-47 rifles equipped with grenade launchers, and handguns.

During initial interrogations, the arrested suspects allegedly admitted their involvement in a recent attack on a police checkpoint in the central city of Kerman, in which three officers and one civilian were killed, the agency said.

The raid comes amid escalating tensions between Iran and the US, ahead of a new round of indirect nuclear negotiations between the two sides under Omani mediation in Geneva on Thursday.

The US has significantly increased its military presence in Persian Gulf region, while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted a series of military drills for any potential war.