Fuel protesters are thugs, says Iran regime, as two die

IRAN’S supreme leader yesterday backed the government’s decision to raise fuel prices and called protesters “thugs”, signalling a possible crackdown on the unrest in the country.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments came as the authorities shut down the internet across Iran to smother protests in around two dozen cities and towns sparked by a 50 per cent rise in government-set petrol prices.

Since Friday’s fuel price rise, demonstrators have abandoned their cars along major highways and joined mass protests in Tehran and elsewhere.

It remains to be seen how many people have been injured, killed and arrested. Videos have shown people gravely wounded. The first female protester killed was named last night as 50-year-old Mina Sheikhi.

Earlier, a police station in Kermanshah was attacked and one officer died, the state-run news agency IRNA said.

Khamenei said yesterday: “Setting a bank on fire is not an act done by the people. This is what thugs do.”

He backed President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to raise fuel prices.