Iran announces arrest of head of US-based exiled 'terrorist group' Tondar

Iran said on August 1 that it has arrested the leader of a California-based “terrorist group” for planning a deadly bombing on a mosque that claimed 14 lives and left more than 200 wounded. Iranian state television said that Jamshid Sharmahd, who allegedly led several armed operations in Iran, is now is “powerful hands” of the country’s security forces.

Citing a statement from the intelligence ministry, the state media said that Sharmahd had orchestrated the April 12, 2008 bombing of Hosseynieh Seyed Al-Shohada Mosque in the southern city of Shiraz. In 2009, the Iranian regime executed three men convicted for the bombing and said that they had ties with the exiled monarchist group known as Kingdom Assembly of Iran.

Iran hanged 21-year old Mohsen Eslamian, 20-year old Ali Asghar Pashtar, and 32-year old Rouzbeh Yahyazadeh who were found guilty of being "moharebeh" (waging war against God). A year later, they hanged two other convicted members of the group who had "confessed to obtaining explosives and planning to assassinate officials".

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Seeks to restore the monarchy

Kingdom Assembly of Iran, also known as Tondar (which means Thunder in Persian), is an exile royalist group which seeks to restore the former Iranian monarchy. The group is based in Los Angeles, California, and the United States has not listed it as a “terrorist organisation”. The intelligence ministry didn’t elaborate on how the US-based opposition leader was arrested.

The statement issued by the Iranian intelligence ministry said that the group had plotted several “big operations” which were thwarted by the agencies. It has accused Tondar of planning to blow up a dam in Shiraz and using "cyanide bombs" at a Tehran book fair. The ministry also claimed that the group was behind a bombing at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's mausoleum in 2010 that injured several people.

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(With inputs from agencies | Image: AP)