Bid by Terrorists to Infiltrate Iran Foiled

Date: 22 July 2016 - 21:45

News ID: ۲۹۱۰۸

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian forces have foiled a "terrorist” bid to infiltrate the country from Turkey, the official IRNA news agency said on Friday.
The Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRCG) intercepted on Thursday morning "a terrorist group trying to infiltrate the country using Iran’s border with Turkey,” IRNA reported quoting a regional commander.
One suspect was killed and one arrested while the other two fled back towards Turkey, said Alireza Madani, a commander in the West Azerbaijan province that borders Turkey.
They were intercepted near the city of Salmas and two military rifles were seized, he said.
"Based on the intelligence acquired by the IRGC, the four terrorists were counter-revolutionary elements who lived in Turkey. They wanted to launch terrorist activities in Iran but their plans were aborted,” Madani said.
He gave no further details about the incident, which comes after Turkey declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of a failed coup.
West Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran lies across the border from Turkey’s mainly Kurdish province of Van, often the scene of clashes between Turkish forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The group, which has been demanding greater rights and self-rule, has staged near-daily attacks against the Turkish security forces since a two-and-a-half-year truce collapsed last July.
Iran forces have also clashed frequently with fighters from the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), a terrorist group with close links to the PKK.
Earlier this month an Iranian lawmaker and a local official were wounded and their driver killed in an assassination attempt in the western Kermanshah province blamed on the PJAK.
Since mid-June, Iranian forces have frequently clashed with militants on the country’s western borders, leaving at least 33 terrorists dead and six soldiers martyred.
Iran’s southeastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan have also been rocked by clashes in recent weeks between Iranian forces and Takfiri terrorists.
On Thursday, Iranian authorities arrested 40 suspects linked to the discovery of an underground tunnel in the country's fareast near the Pakistani border.
The report said those arrested belong to a "terrorist group" but did not identify the group. It quoted Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli as saying the subterranean tunnel discovered two nights ago was meant for "carrying out attacks and militant activities."
Earlier in July, four Iranian border guards were martyred by terrorists near the Pakistani border. Security forces have also occasionally clashed with militants groups in the area believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda and which have claimed responsibility for several attacks in the past years.
Most of the violence is focused in Iran's eastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province.
Separately, the Tasnim news agency said police forces and the intelligence service jointly discovered the secret tunnel close to major military and security headquarters in the city of Khash.
The report added that a raid at a house linked to the tunnel, which is 30 meters (yards) long, uncovered a booby-trap device, weapons and ammunition.