Iran’s Intelligence Ministry says it has identified and destroyed an integrated network of operatives serving the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) inside the country, Press TV reports.

The Ministry’s director-general for counterintelligence said Monday that Iran captured 17 professional spies working on behalf of the CIA throughout last year and some of those arrested had been handed death sentences, according to the Fars news agency.

"The identified spies were employed in sensitive and vital private sector centers in the economic, nuclear, infrastructural, military and cyber areas... where they collected classified information," the unnamed official said in a statement.

The official said that the suspects were operating in key organizations and institutions mainly in the private sector.

He noted that the CIA had recruited the individuals by mainly contacting them over the internet. Other tactics included issuing or renewing US visas, hiring Iranian specialists, providing necessary equipment and access to certain participants in scientific events abroad, sending emails and messaging through social.

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