14 Iranian Security Forces Reported Killed In Three Days Of Unrest

A state-run newspaper reports that 14 Iranian security forces were killed during three days of protests marking the third anniversary of the November 2019 anti-establishment protests in which hundreds of demonstrators were killed.    

Security forces clashed with anti-government protesters in cities across Iran this week as many Iranians went on strike to mark the anniversary, which came as the country has been gripped by a wave of anti-government demonstrations since the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.

The unrest triggered a heavy-handed crackdown by security forces in which more than 340 people were killed, including dozens of children. Thousands of people have also been arrested. Five people have so far been sentenced to death over the protests.

Security forces shot and killed at least 10 people in western Kurdish cities and towns on November 16 alone, according to information obtained by IranWire.

The state-run Iran newspaper said on November 19 that "14 members of security forces were martyred in different cities during the anti-revolutionary call for chaos, strike and creation of insecurity on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday."

Those killed included a colonel of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who was stabbed to death in a western Kurdish province of Kermanshah late on November 18. Several other people were wounded as riot police clashed with protesters in the province.

The previous day, a police colonel and three members of the Basij paramilitary were also stabbed to death in two separate incidents in the western city of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, and in Mashad, in the country’s northeast.

Three years ago, tens of thousands of Iranians rallied in some 100 cities and towns across oil-rich Iran after the authorities announced a sudden hike in the price of gasoline. The security forces responded with brutal force to the anti-establishment protests, killing hundreds of people and detaining thousands during several days of unrest.