Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has arrested 16 activists accused of providing material to anti-government websites, the state media said Wednesday.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmad Ghorbani, a local prosecutor in Kerman in southeast Iran, as saying the 16 are facing charges of cooperating with Western and anti-Iran news networks.

Ghorbani didn't say when the 16 were detained but said confessions obtained during interrogations prove the charges against the defendants. The 16 were not identified but were accused of providing materials to websites seeking to topple Iran's Islamic ruling system.

IRNA's report said some of the defendants had attended training sessions in Turkey and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Iran's morality police have arrested Amir Tataloo, a popular underground singer whose songs authorities deem inappropriate, the daily Etemad reported Wednesday.

The paper quoted a morality police official, Masoud Zahedian, as saying police will confront underground singers.

"Underground musicians must halt their activities and channel their work through legal frameworks," he was quoted as saying.

AP