Iran killed four suspected Islamic State group militants near its border with Iraq, disrupting a cell that was planning attacks in the country, state media reported on Tuesday.
“The takfiri-terrorist team intended to conduct terrorist operations inside the country,” the governor of the border province of Kermanshah, Asadollah Razani, told state broadcaster IRIB.
Iran uses the term “takfiri” to describe Sunni militants.
The 10-member cell had been under surveillance by Iran’s intelligence service before the raid was launched on Monday, Razani said.
“One important member of Daesh, who was armed and had a suicide vest, was killed and six were arrested,” Razani said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Three others were killed in a raid on a safe house they had rented in Kermanshah early on Tuesday, he added.
Video posted by IRIB showed the alleged safe house riddled with bullet holes and scorch marks. A separate photograph showed what the broadcaster said were the bodies of two slain militants.
There have been several reports of Sunni militants trying to infiltrate Iran in recent months, mostly from Iraq but also from Pakistan.
IS considers Shiite-majority Iran a mortal enemy. In June, Tehran said it had thwarted a terrorist plot to carry out bomb attacks in the capital and other parts of the country.
