Iranian authorities have announced the arrest of 30 individuals across West Azerbaijan and Razavi Khorasan, accusing them of spying for Israel and plotting sabotage. Human rights organizations warn the sweep is an effort to instill fear and prevent protests following recent devastating US and Israeli airstrikes.
Iranian authorities have announced the arrest of 30 individuals in Urmia and Razavi Khorasan, accusing them of espionage and sabotage on behalf of Israel and opposition groups. The crackdowns follow an unprecedented wave of US and Israeli airstrikes from March 9 to 13, 2026, which severely degraded Iran's military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) infrastructure.
In West Azerbaijan province, Prosecutor Hossein Majidi announced the arrest of 20 people described as mercenaries linked to the Zionist regime, according to a report by DW Persian, a Western-based outlet that is often critical of the Islamic Republic. Majidi claimed that the IRGC Intelligence Organization, supported by cyber tracking and the Basij, dismantled several networks that were sending information about military, police, and security centers to the Zionist enemy. The arrests were made under judicial order, though no details about the detainees' identities were disclosed. This was similarly reported by the state-aligned aggregator Akharinkhabar in their coverage of the prosecutor's statement.
Simultaneously, the IRGC Intelligence Organization in Razavi Khorasan announced the arrest of 10 traitorous mercenaries, according to the local state-aligned channel آخرین خبر مشهد. Four of the detainees were allegedly spying by collecting information on the locations of sensitive sites and economic infrastructure. Furthermore, a three-person cell—allegedly directed by a monarchist terrorist group and provided with financial and media support—was destroyed before it could execute planned field actions. Authorities seized firearms, cold weapons, and a large cache of communication equipment from the group. This operation was also echoed by the state-aligned channel اخبارفوری خبرفوری.
The domestic security sweep coincides with recent calls from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Iranians to overthrow the government under newly appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. DW Persian emphasized warnings from human rights organizations that security agencies are utilizing these arrests to create a climate of fear in the society. According to these groups, in the wake of the ongoing war and the deaths of military and security commanders, the state is highly concerned about the potential for street protests and is intensifying security measures to prevent widespread unrest.
DW Persian actively frames the arrests as a state mechanism to suppress dissent following recent military losses, while the domestic channels (Toos_today, Akharinkhabar, km_ap) uniformly relay IRGC and judicial statements emphasizing the dismantling of treasonous sabotage and espionage networks. Terminology like 'Zionist enemy' and 'traitorous mercenaries' has been retained to reflect the original framing of the state-aligned sources.