(ANSA-AP) - TIRANA - Albanian police said on Wednesday they
have discovered an Iranian paramilitary network that allegedly
planned attacks in Albania against exiled members of an Iranian
group seeking to overthrow the government in Tehran. Police
chief Ardi Veliu said the foreign wing of Iran's Revolutionary
Guard operated an "active terrorist cell" targeting Mujahedin-e
Khalq, or MEK, group members in Albania. He did not say what the
alleged plot involved, or whether any arrests were made.
A police statement alleged that two Iranian top security
officials led the cell from Tehran. It also said the network was
allegedly linked with organized crime groups in Turkey and used
a former MEK member to collect information in Albania. Veliu
said another planned attack on the group in Albania by Iranian
government agents was foiled in March during the Sultan Nevruz
day festivities.
Last year Albania expelled Iran's ambassador and another
Irania n diplomat over alleged illegal activities threatening
Albania' s security. Outlawed in Iran, Mujahedin-e-Khalq was
listed as a terrorist o rganization by the State Department
until 2012. Some 2,500 of its members moved to Albania from Iraq
in 2014. (ANSA-AP).
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