Police officer killed in protest over drought

A police officer was killed during unrest in the country’s southwest amid ongoing demonstrations over water shortages, raising the death toll in the unrest to at least two people, reported state media on Wednesday. Gunfire killed the officer in Mahshar and another suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, the state-run IRNA news agency said. There have been six days of continuous protests in Iran’s oilrich Khuzestan Province. The country has faced rolling blackouts for weeks now, in part over a severe drought. Precipitation had decreased by almost 50 percent in the last year, leaving dams with dwindling water supplies.