The birds were apprehended near two nuclear plants: one was black, both had "metal rings, with invisible strings." The news agency Fars recalls a protest by Tehran against U.S. espionage.

Tehran (AsiaNews) - "Iran arrests spy pigeons near nuclear site": this is how the semiofficial news agency Fars reports that "security forces have arrested two suspected 'spy pigeons' near a complex for uranium enrichment."

The agency quotes the newspaper Etemad Melli, and specifies that one of the pigeons was captured near a sensitive facility in the city of Lashan, in the province of Isfahan. According to anonymous sources, the pigeon had "metal rings, with invisible strings" attached to it.

The same anonymous source adds that "early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings."

Fars says that "the source gave no further description of the pigeons, neither their current status nor what their fate will be."

The agency then recalls that Natanz is the location of an underground nuclear facility, and that last year it formally protested against the use of espionage by the United States, in order to produce a report on the Iranian nuclear program.

• iran
• espionage
• spy
• spies
• surveillance
• pigeons
• unites
• states
• u.s.
• military
• nuclear
• program
• uranium
• enrichment