Iran has launched a deadly cross-border airstrike in northern Iraq to punish Kurds for their role in supporting protests over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in Iranian police custody that are still rocking the regime from Tehran.
The UPA killed 13 people and injured 58 in Iranian drone attacks on military bases in northern Iraq belonging to the exiled Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.
The KDPI said in a statement: “The forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran attacked the bases and headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran with missiles and drones.”
Iran said it was attacking terrorist bases, while the US called the attacks brazen.
The attack came as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addressed the nation to express his grief over Mahsa Amini’s death a fortnight ago, but also to accuse protesters of being agents of foreign powers.
“The enemy has targeted national unity and wants to pit people against each other,” the ultra-conservative president said.
Raisi said Iran would not tolerate “chaos and unrest” but also said there could be “dialogue” on “different methods of law enforcement”, a possible reference to strict hijab enforcement mandatory by the Iranian moral police.
It was the first time Raisi had directly addressed the street protests on national television, but his mention in the dialogue is unlikely to quell an assertive young generation of Iranians who have lost faith in the old clerical establishment. , especially since it was the hardline president who ordered stricter enforcement of hijab laws earlier this summer.
Activists in Iran, speaking to The Guardian on condition of anonymity, said: “Our confidence is growing. We are not backing down despite the arrests. It is very beautiful. There is a belief that something will change this time.”
The lawyers acting for Amini’s family have submitted, in defiance of pressure from the regime, a formal complaint against those responsible for his arrest. They have demanded a detailed independent investigation into his death, including how he was arrested and taken to hospital, as well as photographs and videos of the arrest and any brain scans.
Amini, now a symbol of resistance to the regime, died in police custody after Tehran’s morality police arrested her for not wearing the hijab properly.
The KPDI urged its supporters in Iran to return to the streets, with its spokesman in London saying: “Support for these demonstrations is building. This started with a Kurdish woman and wearing the hijab, but now it’s something bigger in more than 100 cities. The chant in the streets is: ‘Death to the regime. Death to the dictator.'”
Reports of the death toll amid the protests differ; Oslo-based human rights group Iran Human Rights said the number was at least 76, while Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency put it at “around 60”, including several members of the Iranian security forces.
The regime will be desperate to ensure that the protests do not spread to more working-class districts, and is likely to portray the protesters as unpatriotic liberals at odds with the regime’s values.
Iranian police said Wednesday they would deal with the protests “with all their might.” However, the country’s Minister of Women’s Affairs, Ensieh Khazali, said she had visited women arrested in prison and was seeking the release of those not guilty of serious crimes.
The UN said its secretary-general, António Guterres, had asked Raisi not to use “disproportionate force” against the protesters.
“We are increasingly concerned by reports of increased fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests,” said the UN chief’s spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric.
Iran has shut down the internet to prevent protesters from using social media to inform the outside world of the scale of the crackdown. Up to 20 journalists have been arrested and newspapers are increasingly following the government line that the protests are being manipulated by Saudi or Western media. Some articles are hosting debates about whether sharia law requires the mandatory hijab.
The regime has continued to claim that the Western response followed what it considered a successful performance by Raisi at the UN General Assembly in New York. But the regime is being battered by the persistence of demonstrations and the willingness of prominent Iranians, including musicians, actors, sports stars and academics, to demand that the voice of young Iranians be respected.
Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, an award-winning actor, appeared without a hijab to speak at the funeral ceremony of her colleague Amin Tariokh. Iranian football coach and former player Ali Karimi has also supported the demonstrations, as has composer Hossein Alizadeh.
In Britain, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national who spent five years in an Iranian prison, cut her hair for the BBC’s Persian cameras to show solidarity with the protests in Iran.
The companies said the continued shutdown of the Internet was hurting business.
On Tuesday, authorities in Iran arrested the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for “inciting unrest,” the Tasnim news agency reported. They have also been threatening celebrities and football stars who have supported the protesters.