Iran claims to have thwarted a mass terrorist plot in the capital Tehran

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said on September 24 that it had foiled a terrorist plot targeting several crowded places in the capital Tehran and arrested 28 suspects.

In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said the suspects had planned to carry out 30 simultaneous explosions with the aim of undermining national security, causing fear among the population and causing unrest, marking the time of the riots last fall.

The statement confirmed: "Intelligence forces attacked the terrorists' hideouts and bases in Tehran, Alborz and West Azarbaijan provinces and arrested all members of this terrorist network."

The statement stressed that those arrested had links to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group and that some of them had links to what Iran claims are "Takfiri terrorists" in Syria, or had travel records to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Kurdish region of Iraq.

The statement listed some of the seized equipment and tools as explosives, bombs, manufacturing materials, detonators, electronic tools and time bomb making equipment. Security forces also seized 17 handguns along with ammunition, smart communication devices, satellite equipment, military uniforms, suicide vests and foreign currency.

Iran has been hit by a number of terrorist attacks in recent years, most notably an attack on a Shiite mosque in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz that killed at least 15 people in October 2022.

The terrorist organization IS often claims responsibility for these attacks.