21-Year-Old Kurdish Man Killed By Regime Forces In Iran Protests

Iranian security forces have shot and killed a 21-year-old man during anti-government protests in the northwestern Kurdish city of Sanandaj.

According to the information received by IranWire, Houman Abdollahi was shot in Hassan Abad neighborhood on December 7 and died of his wounds in Kosar hospital.

No further details were immediately available.

A number of people were also detained in Hassan Abad neighborhood, which was crowded on the evening of December 7, the third straight day of a nationwide strike.

There was no information about their whereabouts.

The incidents occurred as security forces have been widely deployed to Sanandaj and other cities in Kurdistan Province over the previous three days, according to local sources.

These sources said the speed of the Internet was significantly reduced in the cities of Sanandaj and Saqqez on December 7.

Iran has been gripped by demonstrations demanding more freedoms and women's rights since a 22-year-old Kurdish woman died in custody on September 16 after her arrest by Tehran’s morality police for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code. Many protesters have also called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic.

The security forces have responded to the protest movement by unleashing a brutal crackdown that has killed more than 440 people, including dozens of children, according to activists. Thousands of people have also been detained.

The demonstrations and state clampdown has been particularly intense in eastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province and the country’s western Kurdish areas.