Foreigners Arrested As Iran Protests Over Amini Death Enter Third Week

Paris, Sept 30 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Oct, 2022 ) :Iran said Friday that nine foreigners were arrested over deadly street protests sparked by the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, as demonstrations across the country entered a third week amid gunfire.

Dozens have been killed in a crackdown on the protests that erupted when Amini, 22, died in custody three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the republic's dress code for women.

Iran's intelligence ministry said "nine foreign nationals" including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland were arrested "at or behind the scene of riots", along with 256 members of outlawed opposition groups.

In the southwestern city of Ahvaz, security forces fired tear gas to disperse scores of people who streamed onto the streets jeering and shouting anti-government slogans, in another video shared by the Iran International channel.

Unrest also erupted in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and is often hit by attacks or clashes between security forces and armed groups, but it was not immediately clear what was behind the violence.

Governor Hossein Khiabani told state television that 19 people were killed including a Revolutionary Guards colonel during heavy gun battles, while provincial police chief Ahmad Taheri said three police stations were attacked.

In the provincial capital Zahedan, men braved gunfire as they stoned a police station, other footage shared by Iran International showed.

Iran has blamed outside forces for the protests, and on Wednesday it launched cross-border missile and drone strikes that killed 14 people in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region, accusing rebel groups based there of fuelling the unrest.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards pledged to carry out more attacks until the groups are disarmed.

The United States said one of its citizens had been killed in the Iranian strikes.