Shooting The group reported 13 deaths in twenty-four hours in these regions, but this figure could not be verified
A video provided by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights shows a protester reacting to shootings. — /AP/SIPA
The security forces fired to live ammunition on Monday to quell protests in Kurdish areas of western Iran, Iran’s said. Iran’s Kurdish rights group Hengaw, based in Iran in Norway. The group reported 13 deaths in 24 hours in these regions, but this figure could not be verified. immediately. Hengaw posted videos showing, according to her, the police firing at live ammunition in the towns of Piranchahr, Marivan and Javanroud.
Reinforcements have been sent in recent days to the Kurdish regions, one of the centers of the protest movement triggered by on September 16 by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested by morality police for violating the strict dress code requiring women to wear the veil in public. Demonstrations there have recently intensified, particularly in on the occasion of the funeral of the demonstrators killed by the security forces.
According to Hengaw, at least seven people were killed. killed at Javanroud, four to Piranchahr and two in other localities. The NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Oslo, also posted images showing, according to her, the security forces; shoot real ammunition at Piranchahr and the grief of a mother prostrate over the remains of a slain 16-year-old boy Sunday, just before his funeral. “Mother, don’t cry, we will get revenge,” in Kurdish of the people present at his side, according to the NGO.
Internet disrupted
Another video posted by Hengaw shows what the group portrays as residents of Javanroud trying to evacuate a body in a street trying to protect themselves from gunfire. Other images show security forces heavily armed forces heading from the city of Sanandaj, the capital of the province of Kurdistan, towards those of Mahabad and Boukan.
The NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) based in Iran New York evoked “Incessant shooting and images of bleeding people being evacuated to be put on display. the shelter” to Javanroud. The NetBlocks site, which monitors internet blockages across the country. around the world, reported Monday a “significant disruption” of access to Internet during recent protests, stating that “access to the mobile internet was cut off. for many users”.
A gesture at the Mondial
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has declared himself on Twitter “greatly concerned; by the fact that the Iranian authorities are intensifying the violence against the demonstrators, in particular at Mahabad”, in the province of West Azerbaijan.
In Doha, the eleven Iranian players refrained from singing their national anthem before their first match of the 2022 World Cup. The slogan symbol of the movement, “Women Life Freedom”, appeared before kick-off on a banner in a bend of the busy stadium; by the Iranians, before disappearing. “Azadi ! Azadi! » (“Freedom ! Free !”) also sometimes rose from the stands.
Strikes in Iraq
The Kurds represent one of the main ethnic minorities in Iran – approximately 10 million out of 83 million inhabitants – and adhere mainly to Sunni Islam and not the dominant Shiism in the country.
At least 378 people have been killed in the repression of the demonstrations, according to a latest report from the IHR. Among them, 255 perished during the protests linked to the death of Mahsa Amini and 123 in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan (southeast), including more than 90 on September 30 in the provincial capital Zahedan, during demonstrations against the rape of a teenager blamed on to a policeman.
On Monday, a policeman was arrested. killed and another wounded by gunfire from “thugs” in Zahedan, General Mohammad Ghanbari, the provincial police chief, told Fars News Agency. The assailants fled.
In the meantime, Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan, killing a fighter from these factions accused of stoking protests in Iran. second time in less than 10 days that the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, launched drone and missile attacks against the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran ( PDKI) and the Iranian Kurdish nationalist group Komala, which have been established for decades in the autonomous Kurdistan region (north).