NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a senior Iranian military official and three others with links to that country’s government with plotting to kill an Iranian American author on U.S. soil — a development lauded by the alleged target.

A brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is accused of plotting to kill an Iranian American author in New York City.

U.S. prosecutors have charged a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran in an assassination plot to kill an Iranian American human rights activist on American soil.

Russia, China and Iran are intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. elections and may consider fomenting violence after voters go to the polls, U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday.

Russia and Iran may seek to foment violent protests inside the US in the days and weeks after the Nov. 5 election as voting results are being tabulated and certified, US intelligence agencies warned on Tuesday.

Iran is Israel's arch-foe and tensions between the two countries are at their highest for years. Israel has pledged to retaliate against an Iranian missile attack on Israel on 1 October. The statement said the group was led by a 23-year-old man,

Seven Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Israeli police and security officials say.

Seven Israeli citizens have been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran on Israeli army bases and taking pictures of the Iron Dome missile defence system.