Iran unrest widens with sporadic protests in Tehran – Firstpost

Sporadic
protests were reported in the
Iranian capital on Saturday evening, according to local media, alongside accounts of intensifying clashes in the western parts of the country. The demonstrations began last Sunday, when shopkeepers went on strike over economic concerns, and have since expanded in both scale and scope, with protesters increasingly voicing political demands.

According to an AFP tally based on official statements and media reports, the unrest has affected at least 40 cities, mostly medium-sized and largely located in western Iran.

Death toll rises amid clashes

At least 12 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, according to official figures.

The Fars news agency described the protests in Tehran on Saturday evening as “limited”, saying they were “generally made up of groups of 50 to 200 young people”.

Tehran’s population is about 10 million.

Demonstrations were reported in the districts of Novobat and Tehran Pars in the capital’s east; Ekteban, Sadeghieh and Sattarkhan in the west; and Naziabad and Abdolabad in the south, Fars said.

Demonstrators shouted slogans including “death to the dictator”, Fars said, though no major incidents were reported beyond some stone throwing and rubbish bins being set alight.

The news agency said the situation in Tehran “contrasted with an intensification of violence and organised attacks in other regions, notably the country’s west”.

In Malekshahi, a county of about 20,000 residents including a sizeable Kurdish population, a member of the security forces was killed in clashes, Iranian media reported Saturday.

“Rioters attempted to storm a police station,” Fars said, adding that “two assailants were killed”.

Local media’s accounting of the protests is not exhaustive, and state-run outlets have downplayed their coverage of the demonstrations, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.

(With agency inputs)