Iran says arrested Mossad spies
State television reports detained 'network' linked to Israel's intelligence service that it blames for assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist in January 2010. 'We dealt a major blow to the Zionist regime's intelligence and security organizations,' intelligence ministry quoted as saying
Iran has arrested a "network of spies" linked to Israel's Mossad intelligence service that it blames for the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in 2010, its state television reported on Monday.
"The network of spies and terrorists linked to ... Mossad was destroyed," state television quoted a statement issued by the intelligence ministry as saying. "The network was behind the assassination of Masoud Ali-Mohammadi."
A remote-controlled bomb killed the Tehran University scientist in Tehran on January 12 last year. Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the killing.
Washington has denied charges of involvement as "absurd".
The statement said Israel had "used some European and non-European countries as well as some neighboring countries to lead the assassination," without giving further details.
"We uncovered important and sensitive information and espionage teams and Mossad operations, and as a result we dealt a major blow to the Zionist regime's intelligence and security organizations."
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of trying to build bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear program. Tehran says its nuclear work is for generating electricity.
Western sources have said Ali-Mohammadi, a physics professor, worked closely with Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi and Fereydoun Abbassi-Davani, both subject to UN sanctions because of their work on suspected nuclear weapons development.
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