- The Elite Force Commander issues one of the harshest warnings yet
- Rights groups report new demonstrations, bloodshed
- Revolutionary Guards not deployed since protests began
October 29 (Portal) – The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps warned protesters that Saturday would be their last day to take to the streets in a sign that security forces were continuing their already crackdown on unrest in Iran country could strengthen.
Protests have swept Iran since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in vice custody last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
“Don’t come out into the street! Today is the last day of the unrest,” said the commander of the guards, Hossein Salami, in some of the harshest language used in the crisis, which the Iranian leadership blames on its foreign enemies, including Israel and the United States.
“This sinister plan is a plan hatched in the White House and in the Zionist regime,” Salami said. “Don’t sell your honor to America and don’t slap the security forces who defend you in the face.”
Iranians have defied such warnings throughout the popular revolt, in which women have played a prominent role. On Saturday there were further reports of new bloodshed and renewed protests.
Human rights group Hengaw reported that security forces shot dead students at a girls’ school in the town of Saqez. Another post said security forces opened fire on students at the Kurdistan University of Medical Science in the Kurdish provincial capital, Sanandaj.
Several students were injured, including one shot in the head, Hengaw said. Portal could not verify this report.
protesters in court
The widely feared Revolutionary Guards, an elite force with a track record of crushing dissent and reporting directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have not been deployed since the demonstrations began last month.
But Salami’s warning, speaking at a funeral for victims killed in an attack claimed by Islamic State this week, suggests Khamenei is wary in the face of relentless demonstrations now aimed at toppling the Islamic Republic could concentrate, unleash.
Videos posted by activist groups on social media are said to show protests at a number of universities across the country in cities including Kerman, Mashhad, Qazvin, Ahvaz, Arak, Kermanshah, Yazd and a dozen campuses in the capital, Tehran.
Activist news agency HRANA released a video showing protesters at a university holding hands in a large circle and chanting, “If we don’t unite, we will be killed one by one.”
According to HRANA, 272 protesters had been killed in the riots as of Friday, including 39 minors and 34 members of the security forces. Almost 14,000 people were arrested during protests in 129 cities and around 115 universities.
An uncompromising Revolutionary Court has started the trials of some of the 315 protesters charged so far in Tehran, at least five of whom face capital crimes, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The defendants include a man accused of hitting a police officer with his car and killing him and injuring five others, IRNA said. He is accused of “spreading corruption around the world,” a crime punishable by death under Iran’s Islamic laws.
Another man faces the capital offense of “moharebeh” – an Islamic term meaning war against God – for allegedly attacking police with a knife and helping set fire to a government building in a town near Tehran put, added IRNA.
The court is headed by Abolghassem Salavati, a judge sanctioned by the United States in 2019 after accusing him of punishing Iranian citizens and dual citizens for exercising their freedom of speech and association.
[email protected]; Edited by Andrew Cawthorne, Helen Popper and Frances Kerry
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