Iran on Sunday executed four people convicted of cooperating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Tehran has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil.

It has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran, which is now gripped by some of the biggest anti-government protests since its 1979 revolution.

On Wednesday, the semi-official Mehr news agency said the four men were given the death sentence “for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”.

Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping, and possessing illegal weapons, it said.