Kian Pirfalak was one of several people killed on Wednesday as anger over Mahsa Amini transforms into wider protest against the regime
The family of a nine-year-old boy killed on Wednesday evening by assailants on motorbikes during some of the worst violence in Iran in two months of protests have accused security forces of carrying out the attack.
Kian Pirfalak was one of seven people, including a woman and a 13-year-old child, killed by gunmen in the western city of Izeh.
Continue reading...Video footage shows people running for exits and police with batons beating women in metro carriages
Iranian security forces have opened fire on people at a metro station in Tehran and beaten women who were not wearing mandatory hair coverings as protests over the death of Mahsa Amini entered a third month.
Footage shared on social media showed passengers running towards exits, with many falling and being trampled, after police opened fire on a crowded platform. Police were also filmed through train windows marching through carriages and beating women with batons.
Continue reading...Pacific Zircon, linked to Israeli billionaire, said to have been ‘hit by projectile’ but suffered only minor damage
The US and Israel have pointed the finger at Iran after an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire was struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman.
The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defence official told the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Forces opened fire as protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death swelled on anniversary of bloody 2019 crackdown
Iranian security forces have shot dead at least two protesters, as demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death swelled on the anniversary of a bloody 2019 crackdown.
The protesters were responding to a call to commemorate those slain in the 2019 crackdown, giving new momentum to the demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Amini in mid-September this year, after her arrest for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Continue reading...Unnamed person faces execution for alleged arson as part of crackdown on unrest triggered by death of Mahsa Amini
Iran has issued a first death sentence over protests that have mounted a fierce challenge to four decades of hardline clerical rule, as rights groups warn that a wave of executions may follow as leaders try to end nearly two months of sustained nationwide dissent.
The execution was ordered for an unidentified person for allegedly setting fire to a government building. It followed 272 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers voting earlier this month to implement the death penalty for serious crimes against the state, and repeated demands by some officials to take a harder line against unrest that shows little sign of abating.
Continue reading...Ali, a Kurd who fled Iran, may also be offered a university place after he told of the tedium of 500 days in limbo
An asylum seeker who has spent almost 500 days stranded in a Berkshire hotel has thanked Observer readers for their generosity after he was inundated with books.
Last week Ali featured in an article articulating life in limbo for the 37,000 asylum seekers living in hotels, with the Kurdish Iranian lamenting that the one thing he craved to relieve the tedium was a book to read.
Continue reading...Olaf Scholz says responsibility for violence lies solely with regime and pledges new sanctions
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has strongly criticised the Iranian government for its brutal crackdown on protests and said Germany stood “shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people”.
Scholz said the protests sparked by the death on 16 September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her detention by Iran’s morality police were no longer “merely a question of dress codes” but had evolved into a fight for freedom and justice.
Continue reading...Video apparently shows crowds marching in Zahedan to condemn 30 September massacre of activists
Thousands of Iranians protested in the restive south-east to mark a 30 September crackdown by security forces known as “Bloody Friday” as the country’s rulers faced persistent nationwide unrest.
Amnesty International said security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people in September after firing at protesters in Zahedan, capital of flashpoint Sistan and Baluchistan province. Authorities said dissidents had provoked the clashes.
Continue reading...Deputy ambassador summoned after Met police warns of credible threats to journalists reporting on Iran protests
The Foreign Office has summoned the Iranian deputy ambassador over allegations that two London-based journalists have faced death threats from Tehran-backed agents over the reporting of the country’s protests.
The news channel Iran International took precautionary steps to protect its reporters after being informed by the Metropolitan police earlier this week that it believes there were credible threats to the journalists’ lives. The two reporters have not been named nor the precise threats detailed.
Continue reading...UN calls for international action as regime announces public trials for protesters and Iranian lawmakers seek harsh punishment
Three weeks after he was violently arrested at his home by Iran’s security forces, Saman Yasin, a young Kurdish artist and rapper, is facing execution. He has been charged with waging war against God after posting his support for anti-regime protesters on social media.
His fate, which will be decided in the coming days by the Iranian courts, could be shared by thousands of other young protesters being held in detention as human rights organisations warn that the regime may unleash a bloody campaign of revenge in an attempt to quash continuing protests.
Continue reading...Tehran’s supply of drones to Moscow deepens a collaboration between two unlikely allies
When a Russian plane arrived in Iran with €140m in cash and a booty of captured western weapons, an exchange for Iranian drones, it marked a new phase in a seven-year alliance between two unlikely bedfellows.
The delivery of cash and weapons was reportedly made in August, after Russia received its first deliveries of drones to support its war in Ukraine. It was Iran’s first known contribution to the Russian offensive in Europe. But the bond between the two countries had been forged on another continent ravaged by war, the Middle East.
Continue reading...Guardian visits space used by Ukrainian military intelligence to examine captured drones
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Ukraine’s military has shown the Guardian evidence that at least some of the Iranian-made drones used by Russia in its war were probably supplied after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February.
Ukraine said it first noticed that Russia was using Iranian-supplied weapons in September. Since then, Russia has successfully used them to target Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure, causing serious power shortages.
Continue reading...Taraneh Alidoosti posted image on her Instagram account in support of protests sweeping the country
One of Iran’s most prominent actors posted an image of herself on social media on Wednesday without the headscarf mandatory for women in the Islamic republic.
Taraneh Alidoosti’s apparent act of defiance comes as weeks of protests have rocked the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in mid-September after being arrested by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country’s strict dress rules for women.
Continue reading...Hardline parliamentarians insist only response to recent unrest is for violent protesters to be executed
The Iranian leadership is resisting growing demands from clerics and some reformist politicians to stage a new referendum on Iran’s constitution as hardline parliamentarians meanwhile insist the only response to the recent unrest sweeping the country is for violent protesters to be executed.
The power struggle among the country’s rulers appears to leave the government sending out mixed messages on how to respond to the protests, but in practice the security forces have gone ahead with a severe crackdown and arrested nearly 10,000 people, including 60 journalists.
Continue reading...Conservative cleric and a newspaper editor openly critical of government’s stance on weapons it supplied to Moscow
An internal rift over the supply of deadly drones to Russia for use in Ukraine has opened up in Iran, with a prominent conservative cleric and newspaper editor saying Russia is the clear aggressor in the war and the supply should stop.
A former Iranian ambassador to Moscow has also hinted the foreign ministry may have been kept in the dark both by the Kremlin and the Iranian military.
Continue reading...Moscow’s growing need for armaments from Pyongyang is likely to lead to greater alignment of diplomatic and military interests
Russian arms procurement from Iran and North Korea heralds an increasing convergence of military and diplomatic interests between Moscow and two countries regarded as international pariahs.
Amid renewed accusations from Washington that Russia is attempting to procure large amounts of artillery ammunition from Pyongyang, on top of the missiles and kamikaze and other drones it has already bought from Iran, Moscow’s arms procurement blitz has flagged up the mounting logistical problems in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Continue reading...Movement against country’s regime sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death keeps going in face of crackdown
New protests erupted in Iran on Sunday at universities and in the largely Kurdish northwest, keeping a seven-week anti-regime movement going even in the face of a fierce crackdown.
The protests, triggered in mid-September by the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly breaching strict dress rules for women, have evolved into the biggest challenge for the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Continue reading...Ebrahim Raisi declares streets ‘safe and sound’ while shopkeepers strike and student demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death reach 50th day
Iranian students protested and shopkeepers went on strike despite a widening crackdown, according to reports on social media, as demonstrations that flared over Mahsa Amini’s death continued for a 50th day.
Saturday’s protests came as President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran’s cities were “safe and sound” after earlier dismissing a pledge from the US president, Joe Biden, to “free Iran”.
Continue reading...Minister says ‘small number’ of drones were sent to Russia months before invasion but denies supply continues
Iran has acknowledged for the first time that it supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.
The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said a “small number” of drones were supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February. He denied Tehran that was continuing to supply drones to Moscow.
Continue reading...Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth week
Iran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.
According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning.
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