Iran rights group claims over 1,000 killed during nationwide protests

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Over 1,000 Iranian protestors are believed to be dead in clashes with security forces during nationwide demonstrations, Iran Human Rights Monitor said on Tuesday.

Protests in Iran started on Nov. 15 after Tehran passed a new law on subsidized gasoline that tripled its price.

Demonstrations began calmly but quickly spread to dozens of other parts of the country, including multiple cities in Kurdish-majority western provinces.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has mobilized hundreds of thousands of its Basij paramilitaries and other security forces to crack down on protestors.

“More than 1,000 people, including several children, were indiscriminately shot and killed by the IRGC, Basij, undercover intelligence agents, and the police,” the rights group said in a monthly report for November.

It also reported that over 12,000 people had been arrested, many after being wounded by gunfire, claiming that “protestors are under severe torture to make false confessions.”

“Iran Human Rights Monitor urges the UN Security Council, world governments, and the international community to take urgent action to immediately halt the murder and suppression of the protestors.”

In a statement on Dec. 2, Amnesty International said the death toll in Iran during nationwide protests had risen to over 200 but added the number “is likely to be higher.”

Read More: Amnesty says at least 208 people killed during protests in Iran

Kurdish rights watchdog Hengaw reported in November that there had been at least 48 deaths and 1,000 arrests in the provinces of Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam, and West Azerbaijan. The group previously said that some wounded protesters had been avoiding hospitals for fear of capture.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Iraq, over 450 people have been killed in clashes between protestors and security forces as anti-government demonstrations continue for over two months now.