ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Many active members and recruiters for the Islamic State (ISIS) have been arrested in Iran’s western Kermanshah province, said the regional commander of the revolutionary guards this week.
“Many teams of the terrorist group ISIS who had been active in this province for two years have been arrested by the army and intelligence,” Bahman Reyhani, commander of the revolutionary guards (Pasdaran) told his country’s media.
Reyhani said that some of those arrested were recruiting for ISIS and “intended to send them outside the country,”
According to the Iranian commander, local security forces in Kermanshah had earlier detained a group of ISIS members who could have carried out terrorist acts inside Iran.
“They were equipped militarily and had military gear and time bombs,” ILNA news agency quoted Reyhani as saying.
Kermanshah borders Iraq’s eastern border where Iranian military advisors helped Iraqi forces and Shiite militia fight ISIS in Diyala province last year.
According to a report by BBC Persian, Iran’s ground troops commander Ahmedreza Pourdustan has put his forces on alert to respond to any ISIS-related activity.
Earlier this month, Iran’s intelligence chief Mahmoud Alavi said at a press conference in Tehran that the security forces had unveiled a number of “terrorist cells” across the country and arrested dozens of “people with links to terrorist groups,”
According to Alavi some armed groups had engaged the security forces in direct firefights particularly in the southern Arab province of Khozestan.
