US ‘SECRETLY WARNED IRAN’ AHEAD OF ISLAMIC STATE ATTACKS

Fri 26 January 2024:

The US secretly alerted Iran that Islamic State was planning to carry out a terrorist attack earlier this month, officials have told The Wall Street Journal.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings that killed at least 84 people near the tomb of Iranian Guards commander Qasem Soleimani on 3 January.

The WSJ cited officials as saying the secret warning came after the US received intelligence that Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch, ISIS-K, was plotting to strike Iran.

They said the information was specific enough that it could have helped Tehran stop the attack or mitigate the casualty toll – but Iran did not prevent the bombings.

“Prior to ISIS’ terrorist attack on January 3, 2024, in Kerman, Iran, the US government provided Iran with a private warning that there was a terrorist threat within Iranian borders,” the official said. “The US government followed a longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy that has been implemented across administrations to warn governments against potential lethal threats. We provide these warnings in part because we do not want to see innocent lives lost in terror attacks.”

The Iranian government was ultimately unable to stop the ISIS attack, which was the deadliest in Iran since its 1979 revolution. At least 84 people were killed and 284 injured in the blasts on January 3, which hit near Soleimani’s burial site in southern Iran. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack one day later.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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