Iran says disrupted “biggest terrorist plot” to ever target Tehran

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iranian intelligence officials have broken up "the biggest terrorist plot" to ever target Tehran and other provinces in the Islamic Republic, the country's state television reported on Monday, June 20, according to the Associated Press.

An anchor on state television read off a statement attributing the information to Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Officials could not be immediately reached for comment to elaborate.

Several suspects have been arrested and are under interrogation over the plot after agents seized ammunition and bombs, the state TV said. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying the attack was timed to hit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The report didn't identify those arrested, though it called them "takfiris," a derogatory term in both Arabic and Farsi referring to Muslims who accuse others of being "nonbelievers," AP says.

Iranian authorities often refer to followers of the Sunni militant Islamic State group as "takfiris," though it isn't clear if this case involved the extremist group that holds territory in Iraq and Syria.

Shiite power Iran has been helping both the Syrian and the Iraqi government in their battles against the Islamic State group. It has warned of possible militant attacks targeting the country, which largely hasn't seen such attacks since the immediate aftermath of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency also carried a similar report about the disrupted attack citing the Intelligence Ministry, though it called those involved "Wahhabi takfiris." Wahhabism is an ultraconservative school of Islam practiced predominantly in Saudi Arabia.

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have frayed following the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in January and subsequent attacks by protesters on Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran. The kingdom cut diplomatic relations with Tehran following those attacks.