Iranian protests turn deadly
TEHRAN, Iran — Protests across Iran saw their most violent night as “armed protesters” tried to overrun military bases and police stations before security forces repelled them, killing 10 people, Iranian state television said Monday.
The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, have seen five days of unrest across the country and a death toll of at least 13, with the slaying of a police officer announced late Monday.
The protests began 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 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 had been killed in the western town of Tuyserkan and three in the town of Shahinshahr.
Late Monday, Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency said an assailant using a hunting rifle killed a policeman and wounded three other officers during a demonstration in the central city of Najafabad.
The slaying marked the first security force member to be killed in the unrest.
Two protesters also were killed during clashes late Saturday in Doroud, authorities have said.
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, but he and others warned that the government wouldn’t hesitate to crack down on those it considers lawbreakers.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been tweeting in support of the protesters, continued into the new year, describing Iran as “failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. …
“TIME FOR CHANGE!”