19 die in Zahedan amid police station standoff in Iran protests

TEHRAN: At least 19 people were reported killed on Friday in Zahedan, the provincial capital of the Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, according to media reports.

A wave of protests unleased in Iran after Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody.

Those killed also included an officer of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) though it was not immediately clear whether it was connected to the unrest sparked by Amini’s death.

Ali Mousavi, IRGC intelligence chief in the Sistan and Baluchistan province, was shot in the city of Zahedan. He was brought to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported.

Following a standoff between protesters and police at a police station in Zahedan 19 people were killed.

“Nineteen people were killed and 20 injured in the incident,” regional governor Hossein Khiabani told state TV, adding: “Provincial intelligence officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Colonel Ali Mousavi was also killed.”

Sistan-Baluchistan province of Iran borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Earlier on Friday, state media reported that security forces had returned fire when a police station in Zahedan came under attack by gunmen.

Moreover, nine European nationals were reported arrested in Iran during deadly street protests.

Local media quoting intelligence officers’ detention of people allegedly “agents of foreign spy organisations.”

The violence in Iran protests shows no sign of easing, with the death toll graph continuing upward.

Those detained are nationals of Poland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands, Iran’s intelligence ministry has said.