TEHRAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Intelligence Ministry on Monday announced that it has dismantled a spying network inside the country serving the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States.

A total of 17 people were arrested linked to the network, said a statement from the ministry carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Some of the detainees have been sentenced to death, it said, but did not identify those arrested.

"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 statement was also cited by Press TV.