Iran to execute CIA agent involved in commander top commander Soleimani's killing
Iran plans to execute a man they say spied for the US and Israel, passing on information about the whereabouts of a top Iranian general who was killed by US forces earlier this year, ratcheting up tensions between the two. General Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran's elite Quds force, died in a US drone strike near Baghdad's airport in early January.
- World
- Reuters
- Published Date: 11:59 | 09 June 2020
- Modified Date: 12:24 | 09 June 2020
An Iranian citizen who provided information to U.S. and Israeli intelligence services on the whereabouts of Iran's slain top commander Qassem Soleimani will be executed soon, Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday.
On Jan. 3, a U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.
"Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for CIA and Mossad has been sentenced to death. He gave the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani to our enemies," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in a televised news conference.
Following Soleimani's killing Iran retaliated with a rocket attack on Iraq's Ain al-Asad base where U.S. forces were stationed on Jan. 8. No U.S. troops were killed or faced immediate bodily injury, but hundreds were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.