Iran sends more troops to Kurdish region as protest flares

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have built up their presence in restive Kurdish regions, state media reported yesterday amid a crackdown on mass protests, as video showed demonstrations in minority Baluch areas of the southeast.

The mass demonstrations that erupted after the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini spread rapidly across the country but have been most intense in areas populated by ethnic minorities.

The unrest has posed one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since they came to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with previous bouts of sustained protest eventually being crushed.

Activist website 1500Tavsir posted footage it said was from yesterday’s protests in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, with the sound of gunshots and, in one video, demonstrators running for cover.

Reuters could not independently verify their authenticity.

More Revolutionary Guards armoured units and special forces were heading to the west and northwest border regions, home to the Kurdish minority, several state news agencies reported, after earlier reinforcements were announced on Sunday.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency showed a photograph of smiling Revolutionary Guards commanders standing on a military vehicle and saluting a long line of troops.

Iran has accused Western countries of orchestrating the unrest and accused protesters in ethnic minority regions of working on behalf of separatist groups.