TEHRAN – On Thursday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry released photos of terrorist attackers in Tehran, saying they were linked to an ISIS ringleader killed last year in western province of Kermanshah.

In August 2016, Iran announced it had killed Abu Aeshe Kurdi, commander of a Daesh brigade in Mosul, in clashes with a terrorist cell in Kermanshah. 

“The terrorists had intruded the country in August 2016 under the command of Abu Aeshe, one of the ISIS high-ranking commanders…” the Intelligence Ministry said in an announcement.

“They fled the country after the cell was crashed,” it added.  

On Wednesday, the capital Tehran came under twin terrorist attacks, one on executive building of Iran’s Parliament and the other on the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly raids which left 17 dead and 40 injured.

Iran, unlike much of the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, has been relatively free of terrorist attacks. 

The statement only released the first names of the terrorists and said that their last names were being withheld due to “certain social and security considerations.”

Two of the names are etymologically Arabic, one Kurdish, the rest Iranian.

In addition to the killed, one woman was arrested on Wednesday, who was said to lead the cell.

AK/AK