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. Their names weren’t immediately recognizable and 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.
The Arab population of Khuzestan has long complained of discrimination by Iran’s central government, and insurgent groups have attacked oil pipelines there as part of a low-level insurgency. 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.
