ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened the Iranian public on Monday with a “decisive and revolutionary” response if nationwide protests against the government’s tripling of petrol prices continue.
Security forces have failed to quell the unrest which has seen dozens of protesters killed and a total internet blackout imposed.
Despite the blackout, a small number of videos emerged on Monday showing extensive damage to police stations and vehicles, banks, and other infrastructure, with security forces deploying live ammunition against unarmed protesters.
Kurdish human rights organisations reported around a dozen protesters were killed in the Kurdish areas of the country’s west, with the cities of Mariwan and Javanrud resembling a war zone.
“This for the world to hear our voice,” a woman who had removed her mandatory headscarf screams from an overpass in one of the videos as hundreds of vehicles stop below. “We have lost everything… we gave martyrs and this is how this regime repays us.”
Another woman off camera says: “Hopefully this time it [the protests] will bear fruit.”
In another video filmed on Sunday two members of the security forces can be seen running along a rooftop shooting down at the people below.
Another video from a hospital in the Kurdish city of Mariwan shows a number of wounded people lying on hospital beds.
There are no exact figures as to how many people have been killed in the four-day protests. Iranian authorities claim three protesters and two members of the security forces have been killed, while Iranian human rights groups based outside the country say more than 40 are dead.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said on Monday the authorities in the Kurdish regions of Iran are refusing to hand over the bodies of those killed to their families for burial.
Authorities launched a fresh crackdown following a call from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to deal with the protesters, which he branded “thugs” on Sunday morning.
More than 1,000 people were arrested overnight with more arrests taking place on Monday. Members of the IRGC intelligence organization detained two protest leaders in the city of Shiraz, which has seen widespread violence in recent days, one pro-government website said on Monday.
While the crackdown has been vicious since protests gained momentum on Friday night, the IRGC’s official entrance onto the scene will likely have dire consequences for the protesters, with the number of dead expected to rise.
The IRGC said in a statement on Monday it has taken into account the instructions of the supreme leader and sees it as its responsibility “to protect the security and stability of the society by working with other security forces… and when necessary they would deal with any continuing acts that disturbs the peace of the people and causes insecurity in a decisive and revolutionary manner”.
Sepideh Gholian, a well-known Iranian activist and journalist in the southern city of Ahwaz who was recently released from prison for her activism, was immediately arrested after joining the protest and raising a placard that read “You increase petrol to 3,000, have you increased the salaries too?”.
Gholian was referring to the price of a liter of petrol which was increased from 1000 ($0.10) tomans to 3000 tomans ($0.30) on Friday morning bringing many people who are already under extreme economic pressure to the streets, igniting protests that soon engulfed the whole country.
The Iranian government is under increasing economic and budgetary pressure as the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal last year and the subsequent re-imposition of crippling sanctions have emptied its coffers, while inflation and unemployment have skyrocketed.
As of Monday lunchtime, the internet blackout was still in place across Iran.
“Forty hours after #Iran implemented a near-total internet shutdown, connectivity to the outside world remains at just 5 percent of ordinary levels,” the non-partisan connectivity tracking group NetBlocks said in a tweet on Monday.
Government spokesperson Ali Rabie admitted an internet blackout is in place, but said it was implemented to prevent foreign hands from taking advantage of the protests. He said the service would be resumed once the unrest subsides in the coming days.
