Iran
Iranian security forces using tear gas to disperse protesters at the Tehran bazaar on January 6. Photo: Social media via AFP.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 27 people, including five children, have been killed during nationwide protests in Iran, which entered their tenth day on Wednesday, according to Europe-based rights monitors, who blamed the deaths on a “war-like” crackdown by Iranian security forces.
In a Wednesday report, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights relayed that “at least 27 citizens - including five children under the age of 18 - have been killed” during the demonstrations, adding that the identities of all 27 individuals, “killed by direct fire from government repressive forces during the protests,” have been confirmed by its statistics and documentation center.
The Oslo-based watchdog further reported that at least five of those killed were minors, including two children, and that 12 of the victims were from the Lur community while 11 were Kurds. Hengaw added that more than 1,500 people have been arrested nationwide, with the identities of 546 detainees confirmed - “51 of whom are children … 57 are women, and 220 are Kurdish citizens.'"
The rights monitor said Iranian security forces have used “firearms, pellet guns, and water cannons” to suppress the protests, in some cases “attempting to fire directly at demonstrators.” Hengaw censured the “war-like approach,” citing “shocking scenes” in some Kurdish cities that “could be characterized as war crimes against the civilian population” and urging the international community to take “decisive and serious action.”
Separately, the Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization reported Tuesday that “27 protesters have been killed by gunfire or other forms of violence carried out by security forces in eight provinces,” including “five children.”
The Norway-based monitor accused Iranian security forces of killing at least six people in a single incident, when they opened fire on protesters in Malekshahi district in the western Ilam province on Saturday, and later raided a hospital in Ilam to arrest wounded demonstrators.
According to IHR, protests have spread to at least 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with student demonstrations at more than 20 universities, and have thus far led to more than 1,000 detentions. IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam warned that “as the [Iranian] regime is more unstable than ever and seriously fears for its survival, there is a grave concern that the scale of repression this time may be even more violent and widespread than before.”
State-run Iranian media, meanwhile, have circulated a much lower death toll of 12 people, including at least one member of the security forces.
Kurdish opposition parties call for strike
For their part, Kurdish opposition parties in Iran, through the Dialogue Center for Inter-Party Cooperation, called for a public strike on Thursday.
“To support the nationwide protests and in solidarity with our compatriots in Kermanshah, Ilam, and Lorestan, we call for a general strike,” the statement read. “Through this general strike, Kurdistan will once again say a massive ‘No’ to the dictatorship of the Islamic Republic and reassert its demands for freedom, equality, and its legitimate rights,” the parties added.
The statement emphasized that Kurdistan will remain “a permanent and impregnable fortress of freedom-seeking and resistance,” noting that recent protests in Kermanshah, Ilam, and Lorestan show “the embers of that uprising are still glowing,” which led to the violent suppression of demonstrations and “a great crime” in Malekshahi on Saturday.
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