IRGC chief says tolerance with protesters is over and threatens them with ‘drowning’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that its tolerance is over with protesters and said that the guards would “drown” anyone who violates the country’s national security.

The threats by IRGC top Commander Hosseini Salami come on the same day the Kurdish areas of Iran declared a general strike in condemnation of the regime’s killing of protesters. The Guards are responsible for the harsh crackdown that is ongoing in the Kurdish areas where at least 40 protesters have died in the space of a week.

“Those who breach our national security … will be drowned,” Salami warned during an event celebrating its militia, the Basij’s achievements in Tehran. “This is not saber-rattling, I am a soldier and whatever I say I will put into plan. I warn the enemies, you are everywhere, your interests are everywhere, have mercy on yourself, you also need peace.”

The guards under Salami’s command have been the main tools at the disposal of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to crackdown on the protests that have engulfed the country since the killing of Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in mid-September at the hands of the morality police in Tehran.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that as of Thursday morning, 440 people including 61 children have been killed, in addition to 56 members of the security forces. In the Kurdish areas, the number is estimated to be at 98 protesters including 10 children.

The UN Human Rights Council held a special session on Iran, debating the formation of an investigative fact-finding mission into alleged abuses committed by the Iranian security forces against protesters.

"The unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must come to an end,” said Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, adding that “the old methods and the fortress mentality of those who wield power simply do not work. In fact, they only aggravate the situation. We are now in a full-fledged human rights crisis.”

Salami addressed US, UK, and Israel and said “we are dangerous for our enemies, be careful.”

Washington and other Western countries have imposed severe sanctions on the top echelon of the security forces including the IRGC for their role in the crackdown and the killing of protesters.

The UN human rights council held a special meeting to discuss the ongoing crackdown in Iran.

The IRGC is currently struggling with the extent of the protests in the country where almost every corner has risen against the regime. The Kurdish areas have become a real headache for the IRGC and its militia. At least two members of the guards and Basij were killed overnight by unknown individuals in the Kurdish areas.

A senior member of the IRGC aerospace force was killed in a road side bomb near Damascus with the IRGC blaming the attack on the Israelis. “If you look at the occupied Palestine, you will see that the Axis of Resistance which is a front that is interlinked and is like a unified body, is avenge the martyrs every day from the Zionists,” Salami told the IRGC mouthpiece Farsnews.