Iran executes 6 death-row inmates it alleges carried out attacks on behalf of Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran executed six death-row inmates Saturday it alleged carried out attacks in the country’s oil-rich southwest on behalf of Israel, the latest prisoners to be put to death in a wave of executions believed to be the highest in decades.

The executions follow the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June, which ended with Tehran vowing it would target its enemies at home and abroad. However, activists warn Iran often relies on coerced confessions and closed-door trials in its death penalty cases, particularly those involving Israel.

Iran said the men killed police officers and security forces, as well as orchestrated bombings targeting sites around Khorramshahr in Iran’s restive Khuzestan province. Iranian state television aired footage of one of the men talking about the attacks, saying it was the first time the details were being made public.

A Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported the men’s execution, identifying them all as “Arab political prisoners” detained during protests in 2019. It said Iran had accused the men of having links to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, which has launched attacks against oil pipelines in Iran’s southwest in the past and other attacks.

“The six men were subjected to severe torture and coerced into giving televised ‘confessions’ under duress,” Hengaw said.

The Arab population of Khuzestan has long complained of discrimination by Iran’s central government. The region also has been roiled like other parts of Iran in the waves of nationwide protests the country has seen in recent years.

Iran separately put to death another inmate Saturday it accused of killing a Sunni cleric in 2009 in Iran’s Kurdistan province, among other crimes.

In response to those protests and the June war, Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran put the number of people executed in 2025 at over 1,000, noting the figure could be higher as Iran does not report on each execution.

Independent human rights experts at the United Nations have also criticized Iran’s executions.

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Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press