ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Iranian judiciary on Tuesday carried out death sentences issued for nine convicted members of the Islamic State (ISIS) who were arrested in 2017.

The convicts were arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in February 2017. The nine ISIS members were hanged “following legal procedures and judicial proceedings,” Iranian state media said on Tuesday.

Despite never posing a credible territorial threat to Tehran, the militant group has time and again posed major security threats and succeeded in orchestrating intermittent attacks against Iranian targets.

ISIS in January 2024 claimed responsibility for a brutal attack at a memorial for top IRGC Commander Qassem Soleimani that killed nearly 100 people and wounded over 200. The group was also responsible for a twin attack on the Iranian parliamentary building and the mausoleum of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 2017 that left at least 17 dead and over 40 more wounded.

The recently executed convicts had also “planned to carry out terrorist operations against the people in Iran in 2017,” according to Iran’s state-owned IRNA news agency.

Iran’s Shiite-majority population and authority make it stand out as a target for the militant group’s operations, which subscribe to an extremist Sunni Islamic ideology. Iran has alleged that they have foiled multiple attempts by the group on their soil in recent years.