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Iran executes 9 Isis militants linked to 2018 attack on Revolutionary Guards

Meanwhile, two thieves have had their hands amputated under Sharia law, showcasing the country’s harsh judicial measures

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The flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Photo: dpa

Iran said on Tuesday it had executed nine Islamic State militants detained after a 2018 attack.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency announced the executions on Tuesday, saying that the death sentences had been upheld by the country’s top court.

It described the militants as being detained after they were in a clash in the country’s western region with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several Islamic State group fighters were killed. Authorities said they had seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the militants’ hideout in the country’s west.

Iran carries out executions by hanging.

The extremist group, which once held vast territory across Iraq and Syria in a self-described caliphate it declared in 2014, ultimately was beaten back by US-led forces.

It has since been in disarray, though it has mounted major assaults. In Iran’s neighbour Afghanistan, for instance, Isis is believed to have grown in strength since the fall of the Western-backed government there to the Taliban in 2021.

The group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. It has claimed other attacks in Iran, including two suicide bombings in 2024 targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 US drone strike. That assault killed at least 94 people.

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