Iran protests have violent night; at least 13 dead overall

TEHRAN - 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 on 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 on Monday.

The protests began on Thursday in Mashhad over Iran's weak economy and a jump in food prices 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 on Monday, the semiofficial ILNA news agency quoted Hedayatollah Khademi, a representative for the town of Izeh, as saying two people died there on Sunday night.

Late on Monday, Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency said an assailant using a hunting rifle killed a policeman and wound- ed three other officers during a demonstration in the central city of Najafabad, about 320km south of Tehran. The slaying marked the first security force member to be killed in the unrest.

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

President Hassan Rouhani admitted 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.