Iran Executes Seven Men Over Attacks on Security Forces and Cleric

A Hezbollah supporter holds an image of late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the assassinations of Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, in Tehran.

Iran has executed seven men convicted of involvement in deadly attacks against security personnel and the assassination of a cleric, according to the judiciary’s news agency, Mizan.

Six of the men, identified as ethnic Arab separatists, were accused of carrying out armed assaults and bombings in Khorramshahr, a city in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, which resulted in the deaths of four security officers. The seventh, Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a Kurdish man, was convicted for the 2009 assassination of Mamousta Sheikh al-Islam, a pro-government Sunni cleric in Sanandaj.

Authorities alleged that the men had ties to Israel, a charge that rights groups argue is frequently used by Tehran to frame domestic dissent as foreign-backed. Activists have raised concerns about Khiyareh’s case, noting that he was only 15 or 16 at the time of the assassination, arrested at 19, and imprisoned for more than a decade before his execution. His conviction, they claim, was based on confessions extracted under torture — a practice human rights organizations say is common in Iranian courts.

The executions come amid a surge in capital punishment in Iran. Amnesty International reports that more than 1,000 people have been executed in the country so far in 2025, the highest annual figure recorded in at least 15 years.