Nine people, including a woman and two teenagers, as well as two paramilitaries, were killed on Wednesday in Iran by assailants on motorcycles, in two separate attacks in Khuzestan and Isfahan, media and a hospital source said on Thursday.
In Izeh, in the province of Khuzestan (southwest), “armed terrorist elements” aboard two motorcycles opened fire in a market where demonstrators and security forces were gathered, killing five and 10 injured, an official quoted by the official Irna agency announced on Wednesday.
“Two wounded died Thursday at dawn, bringing the toll to seven killed and eight injured,” said an official at the Jondi-Chapour hospital in Ahvaz, the provincial capital, quoted by Irna. Among those killed are a 45-year-old woman and two young people aged 9 and 13, according to the official.
Among the eight injured were two paramilitaries and three police officers, a provincial security official told state television.
Separately, according to a senior judicial official in Khuzestan, three of the assailants have been arrested and efforts are continuing to identify their accomplices.
President Ebrahim Raisi ordered the authorities “to act promptly to identify the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice for punishment”, according to the local agency Fars.
Four hours later, in Isfahan, central Iran, two assailants on a motorcycle fired automatic weapons at paramilitaries (Bassidji) in a street, killing two of them and injuring two others, according to the Fars agency.
On October 26, at least 13 people were killed in Shiraz in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group and perpetrated in the mausoleum of Shahcheragh, the main Shiite Muslim shrine in southern Iran.
The new attacks come as the Islamic Republic has been rocked by a wave of protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who was arrested by vice police for violating the strict dress code. from Iran.
Dozens of people, mainly protesters but also members of the security forces, have been killed since the start of the protest, according to the authorities.