New clashes in Iran as protests enter second week: Rights groups
According to official reports, at least 12 people, including security forces, have died since the protests started with a tradesman’s strike in Tehran on December 28.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) monitor, protests containing slogans criticizing the Islamic republic’s religious authorities were reported throughout the night in Tehran, Shiraz in the south and areas where the movement was concentrated in western Iran.
The demonstrations are the most significant in Iran since the 2022-2023 movement sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Recent protests have been concentrated in parts of the west where Kurdish and Lorish minorities are concentrated and have not yet reached the scale of the 2022-2023 movement, let alone the mass street demonstrations that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election.
But they present a new challenge for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old supreme leader who has been in power since 1989, following a 12-day war with Israel in June that left nuclear infrastructure damaged and key members of the security elite killed.
Protests took place in 23 of 31 provinces and affected to varying degrees at least 40 different cities, most of them small and medium-sized, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements and media reports.
deadly clashes
Revolutionary Guards on Saturday opened fire on protesters in the Malekshahi district of western Ilam province, killing four members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, Norway-based Hengaw human rights group said. The group said it was checking reports that two more people were killed, while dozens were injured. He also accused authorities of raiding the main hospital in Ilam city to confiscate the bodies of protesters.
The Iran Human Rights NGO, headquartered in Norway, also gave the same figure as four dead and 30 injured after “security forces attacked protests” in Malekshahi.
Both organizations released images of bloody bodies on the ground in videos verified by AFP.
Iran’s Mehr news agency covered the clashes and said a Revolutionary Guard member was killed in a clash with “rebels” at a police office.
Fars news agency reported that “Rebels attempted to attack the police station” and reported that “two attackers were killed.”
Fars news agency reported that there were sporadic demonstrations in the eastern, western and southern parts of Tehran on Saturday night.
Videos verified by AFP show security forces dispersing protesters who had gathered overnight by knocking over trash cans and blocking the road.
The vast majority of shops were open in the capital on Sunday, AFP observed, but the streets appeared less crowded than usual; riot police and security forces were deployed at major intersections.
growing conflict
The protests began last week with the closure of traders in the Tehran market, a major economic hub, and have spread to other areas as well as universities.
Mai Sato, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said on Friday that “reports show that clashes between protesters and security forces have increased” and warned that the violent response witnessed during the 2022-2023 movement “must not be repeated”.
HRNA said at least 582 people were arrested last week. Hengaw said that almost all of those killed were from ethnic minorities, especially Kurds and Lors.
The United States is “locked in and ready” to respond if Iran kills protesters, President Donald Trump said Friday, a day before an operation to capture Iran’s ally Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called these statements “reckless” and warned that the armed forces were “on standby” in case of any intervention.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday that his country “stands in solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people” and said that it is possible for them to “take their destiny into their own hands.”
While Iranian officials, including Khamenei, publicly took a conciliatory stance regarding the economic demands of the protesters, they warned that instability and chaos would not be tolerated.
