Nineteen people, including a colonel of the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian ideological army, died this Friday in shootings in the Sistan-Baluchistan province (southeast), state media reported, when Iran is shaken by a protest movement.
It was not immediately clear whether the violence was related to the protests that have taken place across the country since the death on September 16 of a young Iranian Kurdish man, Mahsa Amini, arrested by the morality police.
Sistan-Baluchistan regional governor Hossein Khiabani told state television that a total of 19 people were killed and 20 wounded in the clashes, described as an “incident”.
Frequent theater of attacks.
“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps provincial intelligence officer Colonel Ali Moussavi was also killed,” the television said.
Sistan-Baluchistan province is a disadvantaged region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan and a frequent scene of attacks or clashes between law enforcement and armed groups.
Earlier on Friday, state media reported that security forces fired on gunmen who attacked a police station in the provincial capital Zahedan.
“Several police officers and bystanders were injured in the exchange of fire,” state television said.
The repression of the demonstrations that have shaken Iran since September 16 has caused the death of several dozen people, mainly demonstrators but also members of the security forces. Since then, more than a thousand people have been arrested across the country.
Source: BFM TV
