Hackers Expose Iranian Hit Squad Behind Israeli Assassination Plot

Iranian hit men who planned to knock off an Israeli businessman in Eastern Europe were exposed by a hacking group, which disclosed the information to a news outlet.

By United with Israel Staff

On Monday night, Iran International published a report identifying five members of a hit squad that planned to assassinate an Israeli businessman named Itsik Moshe in the Eastern European country of Georgia.

The plan was thwarted in November 2022, but all of the culprits had not been identified until this week.

The would-be hit men were identified as Hossein Rohban, Mohammad-Reza Arablou, Mohsen Rafiei Miandashti, Farhad Fashaee and Ali Feizipour by Iran International, a Persian language news outlet headquartered in London.

According to Iran International, all five suspects are members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Unit 400. Their identities were reportedly revealed by hacktivist group called Backdoor, which turned over to journalists documents related to the suspects.

Specifically, Backdoor (3ackd0or) “provided Iran International with documents about [the suspects’] identities, place of residence, etc.”

The hit squad planned to kill Moshe, who serves as chairman of the Israel Georgia Chamber of Business and Israeli House, a diplomacy group in Eastern Europe. Georgian security forces first discovered the assassination plot.

“In an official statement issued after the arrest they named two Iranian-Georgian citizens, Miandashti and Fashaee, responsible for smuggling weapons for the planned assassination from Turkey,” reported i24 News. “Tbilisi has also identified Rohban, who was not in Georgia himself, as the team leader. He was allegedly under direct command of Hamed Abdollahi, who is the head of Unit 400 and used to be a deputy to notorious Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, killed by a U.S. strike in 2020. ”

A few months before the news broke about the foiled Georgia operation, Israeli and Turkish intelligence agencies thwarted an Iranian plot to kill Israeli tourists in Istanbul. In June, Israel warned its citizens not to visit Turkey, with authorities there arresting eight armed members of an Iranian cell in a tourist district.

In 2021, law enforcement in Cyprus stopped an Iranian plot to attack Israelis, which targeted Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi. Cyprus arrested a Russian-Azeri suspect carrying a loaded firearm and silencer in a rented car.