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| Photo Credit: AP. |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters angry over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody have killed at least nine people since the violence erupted over the weekend, according to a tally Thursday by The Associated Press.
The scope of
Iran’s ongoing unrest, the worst in several years, still remains unclear as
protesters in at least a dozen cities — venting anger over social repression
and the country’s mounting crises — continue to encounter security and
paramilitary forces.
To prevent
protests from spreading, Iran’s biggest telecom operator largely shut down
mobile internet access again Thursday, said Netblocks, a group that monitors
internet access, describing the restrictions as the most severe since 2019.
An anchor on
Iran’s state television suggested the death toll from the mass protests could
be as high as 17 on Thursday, but did not say how he reached that figure.
“Unfortunately, 17 people and police officers present at the scene of these
events lost their lives,” the anchor said, adding official statistics would be
released later.
In a country
where radio and television stations already are state-controlled and
journalists regularly face the threat of arrest, the paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard urged the judiciary on Thursday to prosecute “anyone who spreads fake
news and rumors” on social media about the unrest. Widespread outages of
Instagram and WhatsApp, which are used by protesters, also continued Thursday.
The
demonstrations in Iran began as an emotional outpouring over the death of Mahsa
Amini, a young woman held by the country’s morality police for allegedly
violating its strictly enforced dress code. Her death has sparked sharp
condemnation from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
The police
say she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast
doubt on that account. Independent experts affiliated with the U.N. said
Thursday that reports suggested she was severely beaten by the morality police,
without offering evidence.
The protests
have grown in the last five days into an open challenge to the government, with
women removing and burning their state-mandated headscarves in the streets and
Iranians calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic itself.
“Death to the dictator!” has been a common cry
in the protests.
Demonstrations
have rocked university campuses in Tehran and western cities such as
Kermanshah. Although widespread, the unrest appears distinct from earlier
rounds of nationwide protests triggered by pocketbook issues.
The protest
movement that erupted in 2019 over the government’s gasoline price hike
mobilized working class masses in Iran’s towns. Hundreds were killed as
security forces cracked down, according to human rights groups, the deadliest
violence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s state-run
media this week reported demonstrations in at least 13 cities, including the
capital, Tehran. Videos online show security forces firing tear gas and water
canons to disperse hundreds of protesters. London-based Amnesty International
reported that officers also fired birdshot and beat protesters with batons.
Footage on
social media from the northern city of Tabriz shows a young man allegedly shot
by security forces bleeding out in the street as protesters shouted for help.
At least
nine people have died in the confrontations, according to an AP count based on
statements from Iran’s state-run and semiofficial media. In a statement on
Thursday, the Guard blamed the unrest on “Iran’s enemies.”
In Amini’s
home province in the northwest, Kurdistan, the provincial police chief said
four protesters were killed by live fire. In Kermanshah, the prosecutor said
two protesters were killed, insisting that the bullets were not fired by Iran’s
security forces.
Some
demonstrators appear to have targeted security forces. Three men affiliated
with the Basij, a volunteer force under the Guard, were killed in clashes in
the cities of Shiraz, Tabriz and Mashhad, semiofficial media reported, bringing
the death toll acknowledged by officials to at least nine on both sides.
The
independent experts with the U.N. said the clashes have killed at least eight
people, including a woman and 16-year-old boy, with dozens more injured and
arrested.
The
confrontations have left a trail of destruction. In the northern province of
Mazandaran, angry crowds damaged or set fire to over 40 government properties
and injured 76 security officers, Rouhollah Solgi, the deputy governor, said.
Iran has
grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running
economic crisis exacerbated by Western sanctions linked to its nuclear program.
Citizens also blame government corruption and mismanagement as prices of basic
goods soar and the Iranian currency shrivels in value.
The Biden
administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 Iran
nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for
sanctions relief, but the talks have been deadlocked for months.
From New
York, where Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took the stage Wednesday at the
U.N. General Assembly, CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour
said she had planned to confront Raisi about the protests roiling Iran in what
would be his first U.S.-based interview.
But Amanpour
wrote on Twitter that when the interview was due to start, Raisi didn’t show.
An aide told her the president refused to take part unless she wore a headscarf
given the “situation in Iran.” The Iranian government did not immediately
acknowledge her account.
“I couldn’t
agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition,” the British-Iranian
anchor wrote beside a photo of Raisi’s empty chair.
“As protests
continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important
moment to speak with President Raisi.”