DUBAI (Reuters) - A Revolutionary Court in Iran on Saturday began the trial of a group accused of involvement in attacks last year which killed 18 people in the first deadly operation by Islamic State in the country.

Eight of the 26 suspects in the case attended the hearing, facing charges including belonging to a terrorist organization, weapons smuggling and unauthorized entry to Iran, the Iranian judiciary’s news website Mizanonline reported.

Sunni Islamic State, in decline in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the unprecedented attacks in majority Shi’ite Iran, in which suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the parliament and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran. The attackers were Kurdish Iranian Sunnis.

Iran has said that the five gunmen and suicide bombers who were killed had fought in the militants’ strongholds in Syria and Iraq.</s>File: An group is accused of involvement in attacks last year which killed 18 people in the first deadly operation by Islamic State in the country. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

DUBAI - A Revolutionary Court in Iran on Saturday began the trial of a group accused of involvement in attacks last year which killed 18 people in the first deadly operation by Islamic State in the country.

Eight of the 26 suspects in the case attended the hearing, facing charges including belonging to a terrorist organisation, weapons smuggling and unauthorised entry to Iran, the Iranian judiciary's news website Mizanonline reported.

Sunni Islamic State, in decline in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the unprecedented attacks in majority Shi'ite Iran, in which suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the parliament and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran. The attackers were Kurdish Iranian Sunnis.

Iran has said that the five gunmen and suicide bombers who were killed had fought in the militants’ strongholds in Syria and Iraq.</s>Trial starts in Iran for suspects in 2017 Tehran attack

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian media outlet is reporting that the trial of alleged members of the Islamic State group who took part in an attack in Tehran in 2017 has begun in the country's Revolutionary Court.

The report from the judiciary news website Mizanonline.com says the case involves 26 defendants and eight attended the first hearing Saturday with their lawyers. Charges include being members of a terrorist organization, weapons possession and unauthorized entry into the country.

According to his indictment, a suspect identified only as S.M. left the country in 2015 and joined the Islamic State group. In 2016, he re-entered to the country wearing a suicide belt and carrying weapons.

In June 2017, five militants linked to IS stormed Iran's parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 50.</s>Trial opened in a Tehran court on April 28 for the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) terrorists involved in the June 2017 attack on the Iranian parliament, Fars news agency reported.

Two separate attacks rocked the capital city of Tehran on June 7, leaving at least 17 dead and 43 injured.

The attacks were simultaneously carried out by five IS-linked terrorists against the Iranian Parliament building and the Mausoleum of late Imam Khomeini.

Eight IS members are now being tried at Tehran Revolutionary Court in the presence of their lawyers and families of those killed in the attack.

Based on the indictment, one of the suspects has joined the IS in a foreign state almost three years ago and returned to Iran last year with weapons and ammunition and while he was armed with a suicide belt. He was tasked with coordination for terrorist attacks inside the country.

All the suspects present in the first court session were arrested on June 7-26, 2017, and they are accused of purchasing, carrying and keeping light, semi-heavy and heavy arms and conducting terrorist attack.

Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important news</s>TEHRAN: Twenty-six alleged members of the Islamic State group went on trial in Iran on Saturday (Apr 28) over attacks last year on parliament and the tomb of revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini, local media reported.

Seventeen people were killed and dozens injured in the simultaneous attacks in Tehran on Jun 7-- the first claimed by IS inside Iran.

The judiciary-linked Mizan news agency said several of the accused were Iranians who had left to join IS in neighbouring countries and returned for the attacks.

Five attackers were killed on the day, but police said at the time that five people had been arrested at the scenes of the attacks in central and south Tehran.

Dozens more arrests were reported in the following months - many in operations along the borders with Iraq and Turkey.

There were few details from the first day of the trial, which was held in the presence of the victims' families.

Most of Iran's population is Shiite, and therefore considered heretics by the Sunni jihadists of IS, who have increasingly called for attacks on the country.

Iran has also supported the governments of Iraq and Syria against IS and other jihadist insurgents.</s>A British-Iranian academic and anti-war activist has been arrested in Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, according to a human rights group.

Abbas Edalat, a professor in computer science and maths at Imperial College London, has been held in custody since April 15, the Centre for Human Rights in Iran said.

The Foreign Office said it was making urgent inquiries with Iranian authorities after being alerted to the reports.

The New York-based CHRI said the academic, who has a home in the capital Tehran, travelled to the country to attend an academic workshop.</s>RIYADH (Reuters) - Israel would retaliate against any Iranian attack on Tel Aviv by striking Tehran, Israel's defense minister said in remarks published on Thursday, as the arch-foes faced off over Syria.

The comments by Avigdor Lieberman were an unusually explicit Israeli threat to take military action within Iranian territory, and followed a surge of unprecedented confrontations between the countries' forces in civil war-torn Syria.

"Israel doesn't want war ... but if Iran attacks Tel Aviv, we will hit Tehran," Avigdor Lieberman told the Arabic-language, Saudi-owned news website Elaph, which is based in London.

Coastal Tel Aviv is Israel's commercial capital, where its military is headquartered. Iran, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, often threatens strikes on Tel Aviv.

An Israeli-Iranian showdown has loomed since Feb. 10, when Israel said an armed drone sent from a Syrian base penetrated its air space. Israel blew up the drone and carried out a raid on Syrian air defenses in which one of its F-16 jets was downed.

On April 9, an air strike killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members at the Syrian base. Tehran blamed Israel and vowed unspecified retaliation, drawing Israeli counter-threats to broaden attacks on Iranian military assets in Syria.

The Israelis say their strikes aim to prevent Iran’s garrison in Syria from entrenching itself deeper in support of President Bashar al-Assad and linking with Hezbollah in Lebanon to form a broad front against them.

"Every outpost in which we see Iran positioning militarily in Syria, we will destroy, and we will not allow this no matter what the price," Lieberman told Elaph.</s>Iranian officials have confirmed the detention of a British-Iranian university professor on “security charges”.

Abbas Edalat, a computer scientist and mathematician at Imperial College London, was reportedly held earlier this month by the Revolutionary Guard.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi was quoted by Iran’s official IRNA news agency as saying Mr Edalat had been arrested on “security charges”, without elaborating.

It is the first official confirmation of his detention.

The semi-official Fars news agency reported earlier this week that Mr Edalat was among several people arrested by the Revolutionary Guard over accusations of being a member of a “network affiliated with Britain”.

Mr Edalat, who has campaigned against Western military action targeting Iran, travelled there from his home in England on an unknown date to attend an academic workshop, according to the Centre for Human Rights in Iran.

His home in Tehran has reportedly been raided by the IRGC and his belongings, including his computer, CDs and notebooks, were confiscated when he was arrested, according to the New York-based CHRI.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are urgently seeking information from the Iranian authorities following reports of the arrest of a British-Iranian dual national.”

The arrest of Mr Edalat follows the detention of another dual national, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in 2016.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year jail term after being convicted of spying, which she has always denied.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has criticised the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s unsuccessful bids to have her released.</s>Official: Israel will strike Tehran if Iran attacks Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense minister said in an interview published Thursday that his country will strike Tehran if attacked by archenemy Iran, escalating an already tense war of words between the two adversaries.

Avigdor Lieberman's comments, published in the Arabic newsite "Elaph," came as he was in Washington for talks with his U.S. counterpart, Jim Mattis, and other defense officials.

"We hear many (Iranian) threats ... but if they attack Tel Aviv, we will strike Tehran," Lieberman said.

There has been a spike in hostile rhetoric between the bitter rivals since an airstrike on a military base in Syria that Iran and Russia blamed on Israel earlier this month. Seven Iranians were killed in the strike on Syria's T4 air base.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the strike. Iran has threatened to respond.

On Thursday, the acting commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said Israel is "frightened" of the presence of Islamic (Republic's) forces near its borders.

"That's why we are seeing it launch missiles at bases where our (Iranian) forces are present," Gen. Hossein Salami was quoted as saying by the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

Israel views Iran as a serious threat due to its nuclear and missile programs, support of violent regional groups and frequent calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

It has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in neighboring Syria, where Iran has been backing President Bashar Assad in a seven-year civil war. Israel's concern is that Iran and its Shiite proxies will turn their focus to attacks on Israel.

At the United Nations, Israel's ambassador, Danny Danon, showed a map of what he said was "Iran's central induction and recruitment center in Syria."

He said 80,000 Shiite militants in Syria are under Iranian control and they are trained at the center, just over eight kilometers (5 miles) from Damascus, "to commit acts of terror in Syria and across the region."

Addressing the U.N. Security Council, Danon renewed Israeli accusations that Iran launched a drone into Israel from Syria that contained explosives "intended to be used as an offensive weapon against targets in Israel."

He said the drone, shot down by the Israeli air force in February, "shares key indicators and markers of the Iranian Shahed-129s that have fallen over Syria and Pakistan in recent years."

He said Iran is "the dangerous thread" behind the threats posed by the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza, the Shiite Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria, and Assad's government.

Danon reiterated Israel's strong opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and said the signatories must now make a choice between doing business with Iran or enable "the Iranian regime that supports terror and seeks to take over the Middle East."

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.</s>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A British-Iranian university professor who actively campaigns against military action targeting his homeland has been detained in Iran by the country's hard-line Revolutionary Guard, a semi-official Iranian news agency reported Thursday, becoming the latest dual national held there since the 2015 nuclear deal.

Computer scientist and mathematician Abbas Edalat was one of several people arrested by the Guard over accusations of being part of a "network affiliated with Britain," the Fars news agency said.

Fars, believed to be close to the Guard, cited an unnamed source that accused the group of leading 2009 unrest in Iran surrounding the disputed re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Fars offered no evidence supporting the allegation.

The British Foreign Office said late Wednesday night it was "urgently seeking information" after the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran first reported Edalat had been detained.

It's unclear what charges he faces, though typically those arrested by the Guard face espionage or security-related charges and closed-door trials where guilty verdicts come down without the opportunity to defend themselves.

Edalat is a professor at Imperial College London, a famed British university that Fars described as "playing a special role in training spies in different disguises to launch espionage operations inside Iran." Fars offered no evidence to support the allegation.

In a statement, Imperial College London said Edalat had worked there since 1989 and was a "valued colleague."

"We are understandably concerned for his welfare," the school said.

Edalat traveled to Iran for an academic workshop and was arrested April 15, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran. He refused to post bail Wednesday, arguing he is innocent of the unknown charges and should be freed, the center said. The Guard also raided his home in Tehran.

"Iran's continued arbitrary arrests of dual nationals without transparency and lack of due process is extremely concerning," Hadi Ghaemi, the center's executive director, said in a statement. "The Iranian judiciary and the security establishment, particularly the Revolutionary Guard, are responsible for the well-being of these detainees."

Iran does not recognize dual nationalities, so detainees like Edalat cannot receive consular assistance. A U.N. panel in September described "an emerging pattern involving the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of dual nationals" in Iran, which Tehran denied.

Analysts and family members of dual nationals and others detained in Iran say hard-liners in the Islamic Republic's security agencies use the prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West. Iran and Britain have been discussing the possible release of some 400 million pounds held by London since the 1979 Islamic Revolution for a tank purchase that never happened.

A prisoner exchange in January 2016 that freed Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans also saw the U.S. make a $400 million cash delivery to Iran the same day. That money too involved undelivered military equipment from the shah's era, though some U.S. politicians have criticized the delivery as a ransom payment.

Others with ties to the West detained in Iran include Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly "infiltrating" the country while doing doctoral research on Iran's Qajar dynasty. Iranian-Canadian national Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, a member of Iran's 2015 nuclear negotiating team, is believed to be serving a five-year sentence on espionage charges. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman, also is serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the "soft toppling" of Iran's government while traveling with her young daughter.

Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father Baquer, a former UNICEF representative who served as governor of Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, are both serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges. Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, recently received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences respectively.

Iranian-American Robin Shahini was released on bail last year after staging a hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for "collaboration with a hostile government." Shahini is believed to still be in Iran.

Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years last year on espionage-related charges.

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing as well. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him, though his family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.

Outside of the classroom, Edalat is an anti-war activist and founded the group founded a group called the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran. He previously wrote columns for The Guardian newspaper in Britain, his last in December 2011 saying Britain only wanted to "tighten the diplomatic, economic and military noose around the Islamic Republic."

"Unjustified sanctions only pave the road to a military attack on Iran," Edalat wrote. "The West must change course and enter into negotiations in good faith if a catastrophe for the region and the whole world is to be avoided."

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz .
An Iranian Revolutionary Court begins a trial of eight alleged Islamic State members accused of involvement in gun and suicide bomb attacks that killed eighteen in Tehran.