Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
- Member of the security forces among the dead
- Riots have swept Iran since the young woman died in custody
- Social media video shows a new protest at Tehran University
DUBAI, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Iranian authorities said three people, including a member of the security forces, had died on Tuesday during unrest that swept the country, as anger over the death of a woman under Moral police custody fueled protests for a fifth day.
Official sources now say a total of seven people have died since protests erupted on Saturday over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from Iranian Kurdistan who died last week after being arrested in Tehran for “improper clothing “.
Kurdish rights group Hengaw reports that seven protesters had been killed by security forces, three of them on Tuesday, in or near Kurdish areas in the country’s northwest, where unrest has been particularly intense. and mortal
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
Officials have denied that security forces have killed protesters.
Hengaw also said internet access had been cut in Kurdistan province, a move that would prevent videos from being shared from a region where authorities had previously suppressed unrest by the Kurdish minority. Read more
Internet shutdown watchdog NetBlocks and residents said Iran has restricted access to Instagram, the only major social media platform that Iran does not routinely block. A senior official recently said it had about 48 million users in the country.
The communications minister said he had been misquoted after the media quoted him as saying authorities could disrupt internet services for security reasons. Read more
Amini’s death has sparked anger over issues including freedoms in the Islamic Republic and an economy reeling from sanctions. Women have waved and burned their veils during the protests, with some cutting their hair in public.
After starting at Amini’s funeral in the Kurdish region on Saturday, protests have engulfed much of the country, sparking clashes as security forces have tried to quell them.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not mention the protests – some of Iran’s worst unrest since street clashes last year over water shortages – during a speech on Wednesday commemorating the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. Read more
One of Khamenei’s top aides offered her condolences to Amini’s family this week, promising to follow up on the case and saying the supreme leader was affected and pained by his death.
The official IRNA news agency said a “police assistant” died of his injuries on Tuesday in the southern city of Shiraz.
“Some people clashed with police officers and as a result one of the police assistants was killed. In this incident, four other policemen were injured,” IRNA said. An official quoted by IRNA said 15 protesters were arrested in Shiraz.
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police”, in Tehran, Iran on September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File photo
Read more
In Kermanshah, the city prosecutor said two people had died in riots on Tuesday. “We are sure that this was done by anti-revolutionary elements because the victims were killed by weapons that did not use the safety device,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted prosecutor Shahram Karami as saying.
Kurdistan’s police chief, in comments to the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Wednesday, confirmed four deaths earlier this week in Kurdistan province. He said they were shot with a type of bullet not used by security forces, and said “the gangs” wanted to blame the police and security officials.
Hengaw said a total of 450 people had been injured in addition to the seven Kurdish protesters he said had died as a result of “direct fire” by government forces in the past four days. Reuters could not independently confirm the casualty reports.
Amini fell into a coma and died while waiting with other women detained by the morality police, who enforce strict rules in the Islamic Republic that require women to cover their hair and wear loose clothing in public. Read more
His father said he had no health problems and had bruises on his legs in custody. He holds the police responsible for his death. The police have denied harming her.
The UN Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an impartial investigation into his death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment. Read more
‘DEATH TO THE DICTATOR’
Videos shared on social media have also shown protesters damaging symbols of the Islamic Republic and clashing with security forces.
One showed a man scaling the facade of the city hall in the northern city of Sari and tearing down a picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution.
The semi-official ISNA news agency said 12 ambulances had been attacked and banks and public property damaged in several cities. Protesters have accused police of using ambulances to transport forces and detain protesters
People rallied again in Tehran on Wednesday, with hundreds chanting “death to the dictator” at Tehran University, a video shared by 1500tasvir showed.
Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos.
Media and state officials have described the riots as riots by “anti-revolutionary elements”.
Members of the Basij, a militia under the umbrella of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, held their own rallies in Tehran on Wednesday. “The morality police is just an excuse, what they are targeting is the regime itself,” they chanted in a video posted on 1500tasvir.
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
Report from Dubai Newsroom; Written by Tom Perry Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean and David Gregorio
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.