Clashes erupt in Iran over water scarcity

Residents complain of salty and muddy water coming out of their taps

Gunfire erupted as Iranian security forces confronted protesters early yesterday amid demonstrations over water scarcity in the country’s south, though authorities said only one person was wounded in the clashes.

The protests around Khorramshahr, some 650 kilometres southwest of Tehran, come as residents of the predominantly Arab city near the border with Iraq complain of salty, muddy water coming out of their taps amid a years-long drought.

The unrest there only compounds the wider unease felt across Iran as it faces an economic crisis sparked by President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Protests began in Khorramshahr, Abadan and other areas of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province on Friday. The demonstrations initially were peaceful, with protesters chanting in both Arabic and Persian.

But late Saturday and into early yesterday morning, protesters began throwing stones and confronting security forces in Khorramshahr, according to widely shared online videos. State television aired images of rocks and broken glass covering sidewalks, as well as smashed ATMs.

Women and children fled as gunfire echoed.

Heavy machine gunfire could be heard in one video showing demonstrators dragging away a man who couldn’t walk.

Another video appeared to show a man carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle on the back of a motorcycle near protesters.

State TV reported yesterday afternoon that “peace had returned” to Khorramshahr and an unspecified number of protesters had been arrested.

It’s unclear what sparked the violence. Iranian Interior Minister Abdul Reza Rahmani Fazli told journalists yesterday there had been no deaths, and just one person wounded.

Khorramshahr and the wider Khuzestan province have seen pipeline bombings by Arab separatists in the past. Tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers were killed in the province during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

The unrest only compounds the wider unease felt across Iran as it faces an economic crisis sparked by President Trump’s decision to withdraw US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.