Middle East
Plume of smoke rises from a reported Iranian strike in the industrial district of Doha, Qatar on March 1, 2026. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Doha said Wednesday it captured two cells comprising around a dozen suspects reportedly working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Qatar, the peninsula’s state-run news agency relayed, noting that the purported operatives were assigned to carry out “espionage and subversion missions.”
Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported that “the competent authorities have successfully arrested two cells operating on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard [Corps] in the State of Qatar.”
The outlet added that the arrests followed “precision monitoring and tracking operations” and “resulted in the capture of ten suspects - seven tasked with espionage missions to gather intelligence on the nation's vital and military infrastructure,” and three others “assigned to conduct sabotage activities and trained in the use of drones.”
Qatari authorities also discovered “locations and coordinates of sensitive facilities and installations, along with communication devices and technological equipment” in the possession of the suspects, QNA said. The suspects reportedly confessed their links to the IRGC, stating that “they had been assigned to conduct espionage and subversion missions.”
The development comes as Iran has, since Saturday, been targeting what it says are US assets in several regional countries that host US military bases - including Qatar and other Gulf Cooperation Council states - after US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials.
Doha’s defense ministry reported earlier that an Iranian ballistic missile struck Washington's al-Udeid Airbase - the largest US military installation in the region - on Tuesday. Qatar was targeted by two ballistic missiles, the ministry said, noting that its air defenses successfully intercepted one, while the second struck al-Udeid without causing any casualties.
Since the war began on Saturday and through Tuesday, Iran has launched a massive, multi-front offensive involving over 1,200 drones and nearly 500 ballistic and cruise missiles targeting all six GCC states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The strikes have resulted in at least seven civilian deaths and hundreds of injuries across the region.
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