TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has arrested a "network of spies" linked to Israel's Mossad intelligence service which it blames for the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in 2010, Iran's state television reported on Monday.
Tensions are running high between Iran and Israel, which has not ruled out military strikes on the Islamic Republic if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve a row over Tehran's nuclear program.
Iran has vowed to retaliate for any strikes with missile strikes on Israel and U.S. targets in the Gulf.
"The Intelligence Ministry ... has identified and arrested members of a spy and terrorist network linked to the Zionist regime," state television quoted a statement issued by the ministry as saying. Iran does not recognize the state of Israel.
"The network of spies and terrorists linked to ... Mossad was destroyed. The network was behind the assassination of Masoud Ali-Mohammadi."
State television later aired footage of a young man identified as Majid Jamalifash, who it said was the "main element" behind the assassination of the scientist.
Jamalifash said Israeli officers trained him in a military base near Tel Aviv in surveillance and counter-surveillance techniques, as well as how to collect "information from a specific place and sticking a bomb under a car."
He also said he had practiced detonating bombs in that base "several times," according to state television's website.
A remote-controlled bomb killed the Tehran University scientist in Tehran on January 12 last year. Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the killing of Ali-Mohammadi, a charge Washington has rejected as "absurd."