Thirteen dead as protests intensify
TEHRAN, IRAN — The first report of a police officer being killed during five days of nationwide protests in Iran raises the total number of dead to 13.
The report late Monday from the semi-official Mehr news agency said the assailant used a hunting rifle to shoot at least four officers in the central city of Najafabad, some 320 kilometres south of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Earlier on Monday, Iranian state TV said 12 people had been killed amid the nationwide protests.
The report said that included 10 deaths during clashes Sunday night when security forces repelled what officials described as “armed protesters” trying to take over police stations and military bases in various cities.
The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, began Thursday in Mashhad over economic issues and have since expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hundreds of people have been arrested.
On Sunday, Iran blocked access to Instagram and the popular messaging app Telegram used by activists to organize.
President Hassan Rouhani acknowledged the public’s anger over the Islamic Republic’s flagging economy, though he and others warned that the government wouldn’t hesitate to crack down on those it considers lawbreakers.
That was echoed Monday by Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, who urged authorities to confront rioters, state TV reported.
“I demand all prosecutors across the country to get involved and approach should be strong,” he said.
Rouhani also stressed Monday that Iran “has seen many similar events and passed them easily.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been tweeting in support of protesters in Iran, continued into the new year, describing the country as “failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama administration.”
“The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years,” he wrote. “They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the protesters “brave” and “heroic,” said in a video posted to YouTube on Monday that the protesters sought freedom, justice and “the basic liberties that have been denied to them for decades.”
He criticized the Iranian regime’s response to the protests and also chided European governments for watching “in silence” as the protests turn violent.
While some have shared Trump’s tweets, many in Iran distrust him as he’s refused to recertify the nuclear deal and as his travel bans have blocked Iranians from getting U.S. visas.
State TV also has reported that some protesters invoked the name of the U.S.-backed shah, who fled into exile just before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and later died.
Iran’s economy has improved since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions.
Tehran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Western aircraft.
That improvement has not reached the average Iranian, however. Unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 per cent again.