JUST IN: 17 arrested CIA spies to face death penalty in Iran amid worsening Middle East crisis

Seventeen CIA spies have been arrested in Iran and some of them will face the death penalty, Tehran claimed today amid a worsening Middle East crisis.


Iran's intelligence ministry declared it had broken up an American spy ring and sentenced several of its members to death, according to state television.

"The identified spies were employed in sensitive and vital private sector centres in the economic, nuclear, infrastructural, military and cyber areas... where they collected classified information," a spokesman said.


Washington has yet to respond but the spy claims are likely to send tensions spiralling further amid a row over a captured British tanker.

Iran captured the Stena Impero tanker in the Straits of Hormuz on Friday in retaliation for a British Royal Marine operation two weeks ago in which an Iranian vessel was seized off Gibraltar.

Source: Daily Mail.