Police come under fire

Iranian protesters take up arms and attack bases

PROTESTS across Iran escalated dramatically as “armed protesters” tried to overrun military bases and police stations before security forces repelled them, killing 10 people, Iranian state television said yesterday.

Later in the day, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said an assailant using a hunting rifle killed a policeman and wounded three other officers during a protest in the central city of Najafabad, about 320km south of Tehran.

It was the first report of a police officer dying during five days of unrest and raised the death toll to at least 13.

The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, began on Thursday in Mashhad over economic issues and have expanded to several cities with some protesters chanting against the government and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Hundreds of people have been arrested.

Iranian state television aired footage of a ransacked private bank, broken windows, overturned cars and a firetruck that appeared to have been set ablaze. It said 10 people were killed by security forces during clashes on Sunday night.

“Some armed protesters tried to take over some police stations and military bases but faced serious resistance from security forces,” state TV said.

In a later report, state TV said six people were killed in the western town of Tuyserkan, 295km southwest of Tehran, and three in the town of Shahinshahr, 315km south of Tehran. It did not say where the 10th person was killed.

Earlier, the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted Hedayatollah Khademi, a representative for the town of Izeh, as saying two people died there on Sunday night.

Two protesters also were killed during clashes late Saturday in Doroud, about 325km southwest of Tehran.

On Sunday, Iran blocked access to Instagram and the messaging app Telegram used by activists to organise.

President Hassan Rouhani acknowledged the public’s anger over the Islamic republic’s flagging economy, although he and others warned that the government wouldn’t hesitate to crack down on those it considers law-breakers. State TV said some protesters invoked the name of the US-backed shah who fled in exile just before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.