Iran arrests 20 in northwestern province for allegedly passing military location data to Israel

Iran's provincial prosecutor's office in a northwestern province announced the arrest of 20 individuals on charges of collecting and transmitting precise location data on Iranian military and security assets to Israel, according to a report by the Tasnim news agency — Iran's semi-official outlet with ties to the IRGC. This regional operation is part of a wider national sweep: Iran's police chief later announced on Day 17 that 500 people in total have been arrested nationwide since the conflict began, with half involved in 'serious incidents' including providing targeting intelligence. The 20 NW province arrests appear to be a subset of that national crackdown. The northwestern province location is significant: the region borders Turkey and Azerbaijan and hosts military and logistics infrastructure. Iranian security services have been running parallel internal security operations throughout the conflict.