Police Colonel, Two Paramilitary Forces Killed In Iran Unrest

An Iranian police colonel and two members of the Basij paramilitary force have been stabbed to death in two separate incidents, state media reported, as security forces clashed with protesters in dozens of Iranian cities.

The police commander in the western city of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, said "rioters" armed with knives killed a police colonel on November 17.

The official did not give further details.

In the northeastern city of Mashad, two Basijis died while confronting protesters who were "encouraging" shopkeepers to go on strike, according to the city governor.

One of the protesters “attacked five members of Basij with a knife. Two people were martyred and three people were injured," Governor Mohammad Davari told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

The violence took place on the third day of a general strike called to mark the November 2019 nationwide protests in which hundreds of demonstrators were killed.

The previous day, security forces shot and killed at least 10 people as they cracked down on protests in western Kurdish cities.

Iran has been gripped by unrest since the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.

The protest movement, which is demanding more freedoms and women's rights, has grown to become the biggest threat to the clerical regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

More than 340 people were killed in the state crackdown on the demonstrations, including dozens of children. Thousands of people have also been arrested.

Five people have so far been sentenced to death over the protests.