Several people killed after Iranian protests turn violent

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Several people were killed and dozens arrested after protests in Iran turned violent, according to Iranian media, the first apparent outbreak of deaths during days of demonstrations over economic distress.

Protesters in the southwestern Iranian city of Lordegan chanted slogans and threw stones at government buildings, including the local governor’s office, according to the Fars News Agency of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Riot police responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Henjau Human Rights, a Norway-based NGO, said two protesters – aged 28 and 21 – were killed during the confrontation. Tasnim News Agency, another body affiliated with the Guard, also identified the two dead. Fares added that an unspecified number of people on both sides were injured.

In the town of Azna in western Lorestan province, three people were killed, according to Fars and Hengaw agencies.

Fares said that armed attackers raided a police station, set fire to police cars, and attacked the station’s ammunition store. She added that at least 17 people were arrested.

Local media reported that west of the capital, Tehran, 14 people were arrested in the city of Karaj belonging to a “network” that allegedly produces explosives, including Molotov cocktails.

Earlier, on Wednesday night, 30 others were arrested in the nearby town of Mallard on charges of “disturbing public order,” according to its deputy governor.

Also on Wednesday night, violent clashes in Kuhdasht, Lorestan Province, led to the death of a member of the Guard’s Basij volunteer forces, according to officials.

The wave of protests grew to become the largest since 2022 when a woman, who had been arrested for allegedly wearing the hijab inappropriately, died in custody. The recent demonstrations began in Tehran’s business district due to the collapse of the currency and have since spread to universities and other cities.

The government of President Masoud Pezeshkian took steps to calm the protesters, met with business leaders to discuss their concerns, and appointed a new central bank governor in an attempt to restore “economic stability.”

In public remarks Thursday evening, Pezeshkian said that “people’s livelihoods are a red line for the government,” adding that resolving economic concerns was a “non-negotiable” duty for his administration, without mentioning the protests.

However, Iran has a history of suppressing demonstrations, with more than 300 people killed during months-long protests in 2022, according to Amnesty International.

Seven people were arrested in the city of Kermanshah, western Iran, due to their links to opposition groups based abroad, according to Tasnim, and they were planning to turn the protests into “riots and unrest.”

Iran, whose economy is subject to widespread US sanctions, has suffered a significant collapse in living standards in recent years.

This accelerated in the months following the 12-day war with Israel in June, which the United States also briefly joined. The Iranian currency, the rial, has since fallen to record levels against the US dollar and the annual inflation rate rose to more than 40 percent in December.

Footage posted on social media on Thursday showed shopkeepers in Tehran’s wholesale produce market staging a protest against rising prices. The Tehran governor said that the merchants’ protests were “managed” in cooperation with law enforcement forces.