Supreme leader lauds protest crackdown

Iran’s supreme leader praised paramilitary volunteers tasked with quashing dissent in a televised address Saturday as dozens of eye doctors warned that a rising number of demonstrators have been blinded by security forces during antigovernment demonstrations.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed members of the Basij, the volunteer paramilitary wing of the elite Revolutionary Guard, and reiterated unsupported claims that protesters demonstrating countrywide are “tools” of the U.S. and its “mercenaries.”

The Basij have taken a leading role in clamping down on demonstrations that began Sept. 17, ignited by the death of a young woman while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Her death sparked a wave of protests that grew into one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the chaotic years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Protests continued Saturday at universities in the capital Tehran and in other cities, according to social media. Because of a severe country-wide crackdown by Iranian security forces, demonstrations have become more scattered.

Iran’s ferocious crackdown on dissent has drawn criticism, with at least 448 people killed and more than 18,000 arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group monitoring the demonstrations.

In a letter, 140 ophthalmologists raised concerns about a rising number of patients with severe eye injuries resulting from being shot with metal pellets and rubber bullets, according to pro-reform Iranian news site Sobhema and Iran International.