Iran executed two members of the banned Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition group on Sunday as authorities intensify their campaign against armed and dissident factions operating within the country.
The executed individuals were identified as Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamloo, whom Iranian authorities accused of targeting civilian infrastructure using homemade projectiles. The two were described as "operational elements" of the MEK and were reportedly involved in setting up a base in Tehran for the manufacture and deployment of launchers and handheld mortars.
Ehsani-Eslamloo was allegedly arrested in 2022 following an explosion at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Tehran, an attack that the MEK later claimed responsibility for. Both men were sentenced to death in September 2024, with the executions carried out after Iran's Supreme Court upheld the verdicts.
The MEK, or Mujahideen-e-Khalq, was founded in 1965 with an ideology combining Marxist and Islamic principles. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the group quickly came into conflict with the government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and launched a campaign of bombings and assassinations across Iran during the 1980s. These actions solidified its status as the primary opposition group to the Islamic Republic.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the MEK allied with Saddam Hussein's regime, establishing bases in Iraq where it remained active until the early 2010s. Following the fall of Saddam, the group's leadership relocated to Europe, and its remaining fighters were eventually moved to Albania.
The United States and European Union removed the MEK from their terrorist lists in 2012, following extensive lobbying and shifting geopolitical interests, particularly as Western governments increasingly viewed the MEK as a counterweight to Tehran.
The executions come in the aftermath of Iran’s 12-day conflict with Israel last month, during which hundreds of individuals described by Iranian officials as Mossad-linked operatives reportedly launched drone and projectile attacks from inside the country in coordination with Israeli airstrikes aimed at destabilizing the government.
Since June 13, Iranian authorities have arrested or received the surrender of thousands of suspected Mossad-linked collaborators as the state works to reassert control over internal security amid heightened geopolitical tensions.