Iranian security forces fired heavy artillery at protesters in a Kurdish city in western Iran on Monday, killing at least five people during an anti-government protest that began at the funeral of two killed the day before, activists said.
Videos circulating online show dozens of protesters taking refuge in alleyways as the sound of heavy artillery fire echoes through the streets. Some show people lying on the ground, motionless and bloody, while others show residents flocking to the local hospital to donate blood.
Iran has been the scene of protests against the Islamic regime since the death in Tehran on September 16 of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish Mahsa Amini, three days after she was violently attacked and detained by “morality police”. for violating the strict female dress code, because, although she was wearing the hijab (Islamic veil), she revealed part of her hair. That day, Amini was hospitalized already in a coma and would die three days later.
The protests, which initially focused on the western Kurdish region of Iran where the young woman was from, spread across the country and turned into calls to overthrow fundamentalist Islamic clerics who have held power in the country since the Islamic Revolution, in 1979.
The Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said security forces opened fire with heavy artillery on protesters in the city of Javanrud, where the funeral of two protesters killed the previous day was taking place, citing witnesses that Iranian forces machine guns were fired into the crowd.
Hengaw also said seven people were killed on Monday, while another group, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, took stock of five deaths????????
This last group specified that many of the injured were being cared for at home, for fear of being confined in hospitals, which makes it difficult to confirm the balance of victims. He also said that several of them were shot in the head or chest.
Iranian authorities have severely restricted news coverage of the protests. and they have periodically interrupted access to the internet, making it difficult to confirm details of the riots that have been taking place for more than two months in the country.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported on the protests in Javanrud on Sunday night, saying security forces were fired at with live ammunition and two people were killed and four wounded. There were no reports in the state media about such episodes of violence.
Funeral ceremonies have often been the scene of renewed protest in recent weeks, as was the case during the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought clerics to power. The demonstrations of the past two months represent the biggest challenge to the theocratic regime in more than a decade.
At least 426 people died and more than 17,400 were detainedaccording to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that is monitoring the ongoing protest movement, according to which at least 55 members of the Iranian security forces were also killed.
Jalal Mahmudzadeh, an MP representing the Kurdish city of Mahabad, told the Etemad daily that 11 people had been killed during protests in the city since late October, many in recent days. The deputy said that some members of the security forces fired at houses and commercial establishments on Saturday, and called on the authorities to adopt a more moderate attitude.
Social unrest in the country also overshadowed the 2022 Soccer World Cup, where the Iran team faced England: Iranian players did not sing their country’s national anthem and some fans chanted Amini’s name in the 22nd minute of the game. match.
Iranians silent in the anthem, Englishmen on their knees, benches in protest. The start of England-Iran was more than football
Source: Observadora
