The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff, Wire Reports
Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:31 PM
Two Killed In Growing Unrest As Protests Grow Against Iranian Government
The growing unrest over the economic
woes plaguing Iran turned deadly as two protesters were killed at a
rally amid warnings Sunday from the country’s government that anyone who
disrupts order and breaks the law “must be responsible for their
behavior and pay the price" as Presdient Trump said the U.S. is
"watching very closely."
The deaths were the first of the demonstrations, which began Thursday
and appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the
protests that followed the country's disputed 2009 presidential
election.
"On Saturday evening, there was an illegal protest in Dorud and a number
of people took to the streets responding to calls from hostile groups,
leading to clashes,” said Habibollah Khojastehpour, the deputy governor
of the western Lorestan province, according to Sky News. “Unfortunately
in these clashes two citizens from Dorud were killed."
Khojastehpour told state television that "no shots were fired by the
police and security forces” and “foreign agents” and “enemies of the
revolutions” were to blame.
A
Revolutionary Guards Telegram channel blamed the deaths on "people armed
with hunting and military weapons" who "entered the protests and started
shooting randomly toward the crowd and the governor's building,”
according to Sky News, adding that six people also were wounded.
Videos circulating on social media late Saturday appeared to show fallen
protesters in Doroud as gunshots sounded in the background, although the
footage could not be independently confirmed.
The killings came as interior minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli warned
Iranians about participating in the protests.
"Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must
be responsible for their behavior and pay the price," Sky News quoted
Fazli as saying early Sunday on state television.
The CEO of the popular messaging app
Telegram, which protesters have used to plan and publicize
demonstrations, according to the Associated Press, also said Sunday that
Iran has been "blocking access... for the majority of Iranians."
Iranians said the app is now inaccessible by mobile phone networks.
Thousands have taken to the streets of cities across Iran, beginning on
Thursday in Mashhad, the country's second-largest city and a holy site
for Shiite pilgrims.
At least 50 protesters have been arrested since Thursday, authorities
said Saturday. State TV said some protesters chanted the name of the
U.S.-backed shah, who fled into exile just before Iran's 1979 Islamic
Revolution and later died, according to the Associated Press.
Anti-regime street protests grow, demanding democracy and freedomVideo
Eric Shawn reports: In Iran, 'death to the dictator!'
The protests have also spread to Iran’s capital of Tehran, and on
Saturday, tens of thousands of government supporters marched in cities
to show their support for the regime, Sky News reported.
On Sunday, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported that authorities
have arrested some 80 protesters in the city of Arak, some 173 miles
south of Tehran.
President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that “people are finally getting
wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on
terrorism."
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how
their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism.
Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very
closely for human rights violations!
Texas Rep. Will Hurd said a day earlier that the “Iranian regime is of
course trying to suppress the fact that protests against their
tyrannical reign are popping up across Iran.
“The Ayatollahs are out of touch with their citizens and are exporting
terror abroad,” the Republican congressman wrote in a message on his
Facebook page. “We should support a free and peaceful Iran. We should
support the people of Iran who have had enough.”