Iran authorities have killed nearly 500 protesters since September

Iranian security forces have killed at least 448 people since mid-September. The killings, over half of which were in ethnic minority regions, came amid the state’s crackdown on protests. The news about the number of killings comes on the same day Iran’s football team faces the USA in the World Cup.

Iran: nearly 500 citizens dead

As the Canary previously reported:

Iran has been shaken by over two months of protests sparked by the death of Kurdish-Iranian woman Jîna Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women. Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted that the Iranian state could sentence 21 people to death over the protests.

Now, AFP reports that the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group has given an update on the number of people security forces have killed. IHR said that authorities have killed 448 people. Of these, 60 were children aged under 18, including 9 girls and 29 women. IHR said security forces killed 16 people in the past week alone. They slew 12 in Kurdish-populated areas, where protests have been particularly intense. The toll also rose after the deaths of people killed in previous weeks were verified and included, it added. The toll only includes citizens killed in the crackdown and not members of the security forces.

The UN Rights Council recently voted to establish a high-level fact-finding mission to probe the state’s crackdown. Iran’s authorities angrily rejected the UN probe – despite admitting to many of the killings. Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday 29 November that his forces had killed more than 300 people. This was the first time the authorities have acknowledged such a figure.

Predictable non-cooperation

IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said:

Islamic republic authorities know full well that if they cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission, an even wider scale of their crimes will be revealed. That’s why their non-cooperation is predictable.

Security forces also killed large numbers of people in the western Kurdish-populated Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces. There, authorities killed 53 and 51 people respectively. However, IHR said that more than half the deaths were recorded in regions populated by the Sunni Baluch or Kurdish ethnic minorities.

The greatest number of deaths were in the southeastern region, Sistan-Baluchistan. Authorities killed 128 people there after protests erupted following the death of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini. Tehran’s morality police had arrested her, and the ensuing protests then fed into the nation-wide anger.

Featured image via BBC News – YouTube

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Comments 4

nellykskelly says:

4 years ago

Nice bit of Isra’USA War Propaganda! Eat you heart out Murdoch!
You should definitely seek reliable sources, who.is is an easy simple means to check!

Airlane1979 says:

4 years ago

The IHR site’s ‘About Us’ has nothing on its sources of funding, which naturally raises questions as to how close it is to the foreign government which has for decades wanted to return Iran to its own control: the US. This piece, being based solely on IHR information, should have looked further before being published. It might well be accurate, but additional sources should have been found. Poor, click-bait journalism.

- nellykskelly says:
  
  4 years ago
  
  “Journalism” is generous. As much as we agree/disagree with Iran, China, Russia’s policies, Propaganda and Foreign Government Interference, use of Terrorism, Coupes, etc will never fix it or change it. We just need to look at the empty hollow shells of the ME to see this and by that The Great White West created a much bigger enemy and crises for themselves.
  The USA may finally learn with the asaults on Iran, Russia and China that they are no longer out of reach, technology has put them in the backyard.
  Their dominance is over and this is the final death spasms of Unipolar Control, good fkng riddance to that horror. Welcome to a Multipolar New World Order and UN & ICC. No more One Party Rules All, but the West only knows death and destruction, I fear we are all in for a very rough ride until then.
  As far as Canary’s concerned you sould go back to all your old articles, Coburgh comes to mind, and write an apology article to your readers and those wrongly accused.
  Nobody is flawless, everone makes mistakes, to make a mistake and appologise for it with the correct information is honourable, to leave it floating on the internet is dishonest and will do you much harm.
  
Madge says:

4 years ago

Just a coincidence that the 2 regions, Kurd/Baloch-istan is where the US is supporting terrorists to overthrow the government. Cmon Canary you should do better than repeating Western propaganda, we already get that from the BBC Guardian etc