Arms Smuggling Attempt Thwarted

Border guards in northwestern Iran have seized 30 mules and horses that were being used to smuggle arms and explosives into the country.

Clashes with Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq are fairly common near Iran’s mountainous northwestern borders with Iraq and Turkey, Tasnim News Agency reported on Monday.

“The 30 horses and mules were carrying smuggled weapons, ammunition and explosive devices in the northwest,” General Qasem Rezaei, the head of Iran’s border guard command, added.

Rezaei did not say whether arms smugglers were also arrested with the animals. Early in June, the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group attacked the parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, killing 18 people. The attackers were Kurdish terrorists recruited by IS. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps fired several missiles at the IS bases in Syria on June 18 in response to that attack.