‘3,428 protesters killed in Iran violent crackdown’

AFP | Paris

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Iranian security forces have killed at least 3,428 protesters in a crackdown on demonstrations, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said yesterday, adding that more than 10,000 people had also been arrested.

IHR said the jump in its verified toll was due to new information it received from within the Iranian health and education ministries, with at least 3,379 of the killings coming during the height of the protest movement from January 8 to 12.

The group’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam condemned the “mass killing of protesters on the streets in recent days”, while IHR warned that even the new figure represented an “absolute minimum” for the actual toll.

Rights groups say that under the cover of a more than fiveday internet blackout, Iranian authorities are carrying out their most severe repression in years of protests that have openly challenged the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the revolution.

Caution

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Saudi Arabia told its personnel yesterday to act with caution and avoid military installations.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said in a CBS News interview that the US would act if Iran began hanging protesters.

“We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” he said.

“When they start killing thousands of people - and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them,” Trump said.