Safety forces intensify crackdown on Iran’s Kurdish space, 4 killed

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s clerical rulers have stepped up suppression of persistent anti-government protests within the nation’s Kurdish area, deploying troops and killing at the very least 4 demonstrators on Sunday, social media posts and rights teams mentioned.

Nationwide protests, sparked by the dying of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini in September within the custody of morality police, have been at their most intense within the areas the place nearly all of Iran’s 10 million Kurds dwell.

Movies on social media, unverifiable by Reuters, confirmed a convoy of army automobiles with closely armed troops, purportedly within the western metropolis of Mahabad. The sounds of heavy weaponry could possibly be heard in a number of different movies.

The Norway-based human rights group Hengaw mentioned army helicopters carried members of the broadly feared Revolutionary Guards to quell the protests within the Sunni-dominated Kurdish metropolis of Mahabad.

Outstanding Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolhamid, a strong dissenting voice within the Shi’ite-ruled Islamic Republic, known as on safety forces to chorus from taking pictures at individuals in Mahabad.

‘DISTURBING NEWS’

“Disturbing information is rising from the Kurdish areas, particularly from Mahabad … stress and crackdown will result in additional dissatisfaction. Officers ought to chorus from taking pictures at individuals,” Abdolhamid tweeted.

Hengaw mentioned at the very least 4 protesters have been killed within the Kurdish space. The widely-followed activist account 1500Tasvir mentioned a 16-year-old pupil and a faculty trainer have been killed within the Kurdish metropolis of Javanrud. The main points couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Confirming the unrest in Kurdish area, Iran’s state media mentioned calm had been restored within the space, however activists and Hengaw mentioned on Twitter that “the resistance” continued in a number of Kurdish cities.

“In (the Kurdish metropolis of) Marivan repressive forces have opened hearth at individuals,” Hengaw mentioned.

The rebellion has become a preferred revolt by livid Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of many boldest challenges to the clerical leaders because the 1979 Islamic revolution that swept them to energy.

Iranian authorities, who’ve blamed Amini’s dying on pre-existing medical circumstances, say the unrest has been fomented by overseas adversaries and accuse armed separatists of perpetrating violence.

Protests have stretched into a 3rd month regardless of violent state clampdown and dying sentences issued for at the very least six protesters.

HRANA mentioned 410 protesters had been killed within the unrest as of Saturday, together with 58 minors. Some 54 members of the safety forces have been additionally killed, it mentioned, including that greater than 17,251 individuals have been arrested. Authorities haven’t supplied an estimate of any wider dying depend.

Two Iranian actresses, who had posted photos of themselves on Instagram with out the obligatory headband in solidarity with the protest, have been arrested on Sunday for stoking protests, Iranian state media reported.

Movies posted on social media confirmed Iranians in a number of different cities saved up protests, from Tehran to the northwestern metropolis of Tabriz, calling for the toppling of the Islamic Republic and chanting “Demise to (Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei”.