Iran has hanged telecoms salesman Ali Ashtari, seen here in June 2008, who was convicted of spying for arch-enemy Israel. Iran also warned that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    TEHRAN, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran hanged an Israeli spy to show that it had entered a "serious intelligence war" with Israel, the official IRNA news agency quoted an official of counter-espionage of Iran's Intelligence Ministry as saying on Saturday.

    Ali Ashtari, who was arrested in February 2007 for cooperation with Israeli intelligence services (Mossad) for three years, was sentenced to death in June and was hanged in Tehran on November 17,according to the report.

    "The issue of his spying has been clear to the extent that it could not be overlooked at any judicial procedures," the unnamed official said.

    "Not every spy is executed in Iran and we do not announce the execution of a spy. The ministry announced Ashtari's execution for some purposes. We wanted to show that we are in a new and more serious intelligence war with the enemy (Israel)," the official explained

    "Enemies' intelligence services, especially those of the Zionist regime just raise claims about Iran without proving them, but we can prove with evidence that the Zionist regime is making actions against Iran." the official added.

    He warned that Iranians should be in alert "about the serious danger of penetration of the Israeli intelligence services to Iran's internet and telecommunications network."

Iran has hanged telecoms salesman Ali Ashtari, seen here in June 2008, who was convicted of spying for arch-enemy Israel. Iran also warned that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Ashtari, a 45 telecome salesman, was accused of intercepting communications of Iranian officials who were working in military bodies and were involved in its nuclear programs, especially those who were working for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.

    He already confessed that he had assisted Israeli intelligent service with some secret information from Iranian officials.

    Reportedly, Mossad gave him 50,000 U.S. dollars to buy internet cables and satellite phones and then sell them to the special customers in the hope of enabling Israel to spy on their communications.

    He had met his handlers with forged names as "Jacques, Charles and Tony," in three counties of Turkey, Thailand and Switzerland, he said in his confessions, adding that they (the Israeli agents) had asked him to sell terminals in Iran to the special customers so they could hack into these equipment."

    He was given a laptop by means of which he sent "encrypted emails," he said.

    "I am not sure what they intended to do, I sold these to my customers before I was arrested," he claimed.

    Iran had earlier in 2000 tried 10 Iranian civilians, both Jews and Muslims, for spying for its arc-enemy Israel.

    They received jails between four and 13 years after their charges were proven by the Iranian court.

    Iran's satellite Press TV quoting the unnamed intelligence official on Saturday that Iran has detained terrorists carrying Israeli arms near the Iran-Iraq border without referring to the date of their detainment and without providing the details regarding the exact location of the arrest or the nature or name of the terrorist group.

    "Four members of a terrorist organization equipped with Israeli weapons have been arrested near Iran's border with Iraq's Kurdistan region," Press TV quoted the intelligence official as saying.

    He told reporters that "the group had entered Iran on an assassination mission, but were arrested by Iran's intelligence forces before doing anything."

    Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of aiding "the outlawed Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) in a bid to stir up ethnic unrest in the country."

    The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program.

    The United States and Israel have consistently refused to rule out the possibility of military strikes against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program.

    Iran has denied the U.S. charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.