**TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have executed six ethnic Arab men convicted of carrying out a series of attacks in the sensitive southwestern province of Khuzestan, allegedly under the direction of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
The executions were carried out after the men were found guilty of “enmity against God” and separatism for their roles in bombings and assassinations. According to Iranian authorities, the cell was responsible for the deaths of four security personnel and for targeting sites in the city of Khorramshahr.
The individuals, whose arrests took place between 2018 and 2020, reportedly confessed to operating under Israeli guidance with the aim of instigating an “armed insurgency” in the oil-rich Khuzestan province.
In a separate case, Kurdish prisoner Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh was hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison on charges of murder and having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its allies.
These latest executions contribute to a sharp rise in state-sanctioned killings in Iran this year. According to reports, the country has now carried out at least 1,000 executions in 2024, amid heightened regional tensions following a period of open conflict with Israel in June.
