‘Israeli spies’ linked to Mossad held in joint operation with Afghanistan: Iran

TEHRAN: State television in Iran reported on Sunday that three Iranians it said were agents in Israel’s spy agency Mossad have been detained in a joint operation with Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

The “three Mossad agents who held Iranian nationality” were detained in the mountainous region between the two countries, the broadcaster said.

News of the arrests came after a Taliban delegation arrived in Tehran on Saturday for meetings with top officials including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

State television said the three had been “planning to launch kamikaze drone attacks from the Afghan border towards targets in Iran”.

They “will be transferred to Iran for interrogation”, it reported, without elaborating.

The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel, its arch enemy, and the two countries have engaged in a shadow war for years.

Tehran accuses Israel of having carried out a wave of sabotage attacks and assassinations targeting its nuclear programme.

In August, security services claimed to have foiled an Israeli plot to sabotage its ballistic missile production, and said several people had been arrested.

Tehran has also accused Israel of being behind a January drone attack on a defence ministry site in the central province of Isfahan.

Iran hailed as a “success” the October 7 attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants in Israel, which officials there say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

Hamas also seized 240 hostages, Israel says, and took them back to the Gaza Strip.

Israel has since unleashed a withering bombing campaign against densely populated Gaza, killing 9,770 people, mostly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry says.