Iran: Children Among Dead in Latest Protests

Facts

• More than a dozen people, including at least two children, have been killed during the latest surge of protests across Iran, as three days of demonstrations and strikes began on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of protests in November 2019.¹
• Though Iranian state media reported that gunmen on motorcycles killed seven people in a 'terrorist attack' in Izeh on Wednesday, sources close to the families of 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak and 14-year-old Sepehr Maghsoudi told the BBC that they were shot dead by security forces.²
• Since renewed violence erupted on Tuesday, the Oslo-based Hengay rights group has reported that security forces have carried out at least 13 executions, of which three took place on Thursday, and 10 were carried out within a 24-hour period until late Wednesday.³
• Meanwhile, an Iranian police colonel and two Basij paramilitary force members have reportedly been stabbed to death in two separate incidents, as security forces clashed with protesters in dozens of Iranian cities on the third day of the general strike.⁴
• Nationwide demonstrations — which broke out in Iran following Mahsa Amini's death in custody after she was arrested on charges of improperly covering her hair — have been widened to include broader calls for the end of the Islamic Republic.⁵
• The Iranian regime stands accused of having killed nearly 350 protesters, including over 40 children, since the protests began in mid-September. During the 2019 unrest, security forces reportedly killed at least 1.5K citizens.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²BBC News, ³Guardian, ⁴Iranwire, ⁵New York Times and ⁶Iran International.

Narratives

• Anti-Iran narrative, as provided by Iran News Update. Tehran's theocratic regime has reached a new low in its crackdown against freedom-loving demonstrators, with Khamenei's security forces committing the heinous crime of murdering children. It's clear that anti-regime protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini have turned into a revolution against Khamenei's dictatorship.
• Pro-Iran narrative, as provided by PressTV. The US and its allies have been instigating violent riots across Iran — they are deeply committed to obstructing the progress and development of the country, even at the cost of the lives of Iranian youths and security officers. After exploiting the natural death of Mahsa Amini, the enemies of Iran are now trying to turn the deaths of children killed in a terrorist attack into a pretext for their attempt to divide the nation.