DUBAI, March 15 (Reuters) – Iran has arrested 500 people accused of sharing information with enemies, the Islamic Republic’s police chief said on Sunday, as Israeli and U.S. fighter jets continue to strike new targets in the country.
Half of those cases had involved serious incidents “including people who provided information for hitting targets and individuals who took footage of strike locations and sent them,” Ahmadreza Radan said, without going into detail on when the arrests took place.
Earlier, Iranian media reported dozens of arrests in several regions on Sunday.
In northwestern Iran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said 20 people were arrested on accusations by the provincial prosecutor’s office of sending location details on Iran’s military and security assets to Israel.
In northeastern Iran, which has remained relatively untouched by air strikes, Tasnim reported the arrest of 10 people, with some accused of collecting information on sensitive locations and economic infrastructure.
“As the Zionist enemy (Israel) and the U.S. are attempting to invade Iran, they simultaneously activate mercenaries and spies to carry out riots as the next step,” a provincial branch of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organisation said, according to Tasnim.
The Student News Network also reported that three people were detained in the western province of Lorestan for “seeking to disturb public opinion … and burn mourning symbols.”
Israel has begun targeting security checkpoints based on tip-offs from informants on the ground, representing a new phase of its assault on Iran, a source briefed on Israel’s military strategy told Reuters this week.
In January, weeks before the U.S. and Israel launched the current war against Iran, there were widespread anti-government protests in Iran that were repressed in the deadliest crackdown in the Islamic Republic’s history.
Authorities had blamed Israel and the U.S. for fomenting what they said were “violent riots” aimed at overthrowing the clerical establishment.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by William Mallard, Aidan Lewis and Andrew Heavens)
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