DUBAI
\nIran, which has blamed \u201cforeign enemies\u201d for protests that swept the country after the death of a woman in morality police custody, said on Friday it had arrested nine European nationals for their role in the unrest.
\nThe detention of citizens of Germany, Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries is likely to ratchet up tensions between Iran and Western countries over the death of Mahsa Amini.
\nThe escalation comes as more casualties were reported. Nineteen people were killed after security forces fired on armed protesters attacking a police station, said an official.
\nTehran has responded to international condemnation of the case by lashing out at its critics, accusing the United States of exploiting the unrest to try to destabilise Iran.
\nThe nine unidentified people were detained \u201cduring the riots or while plotting in the background,\u201d the Intelligence Ministry said in a statement carried by Iranian media.
\nAmini, a 22-year-old from the Iranian Kurdish town of Saqez, was arrested this month in Tehran for \u201cunsuitable attire\u201d by the morality police who enforce the Islamic Republic\u2019s strict dress code for women.
\nHer death has caused the first big show of opposition on Iran\u2019s streets since authorities crushed protests against a rise in gasoline prices in 2019. The demonstrations have quickly evolved into a popular revolt against the clerical establishment.
\nDemonstrations have spread from Amini\u2019s hometown to all of Iran\u2019s 31 provinces, with all layers of society, including ethnic and religious minorities, joining in.
\nFearing an ethnic uprising and in a show of power, Iran fired missiles and drones at targets in neighbouring northern Iraq\u2019s Kurdish region this week after accusing Iranian Kurdish dissidents of being involved in the unrest.
\nWestern human rights groups say that Iran, dominated by its Persian Shi\u2019ite majority, discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities. Tehran denies this.
\nCRACKDOWN
\nWhile analysts don\u2019t expectIran\u2019s clerical rulers to fall, they are on the defensive and are struggling to come up with a strategy to defuse the fury.
\nRights groups said dozens of activists, students and artists have been detained and the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Twitter that it had learned that security forces had arrested at least 28 journalists as of Sept. 29.
\nA senior Iranian cleric called for tough action against protesters.
\n\u201cOur security is our distinctive privilege. The Iranian people demand the harshest punishment for these barbaric rioters,\u201d said Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, a leader of prayers that are held on Fridays in Tehran before a large gathering.
\nAmnesty International said on Friday the government crackdown on demonstrations has so far led to the death of at least 52 people, with hundreds injured.
\nDespite the growing death toll, videos posted on social media showed demonstrators calling for the fall of the clerical establishment.
\nHeavy shooting could be heard on some videos as protesters chanted \u201cDeath to Khamenei\u201d, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
\nHuman rights group Hengaw posted a video that it said showed protests late on Friday in Saqez, home town of Amini. Young women were seen cheering as they took off and waved their headscarves in protest against Iran\u2019s hijab rules.
\nActivist Twitter account 1500tasvir, which has more than 150,000 followers, posted videos of protests in the southwestern oil city of Abadan, with demonstrators chanting \u201cClerics must get lost\u201d. Other videos purported to show protests in Karaj, west of Tehran, and Isfahan in central Iran.
\nReuters could not verify the footage.
\nPOLICE STATION ATTACKED
\nState television said \u201cunidentified armed individuals\u201d opened fire on a police station in the southeastern city of Zahedan, prompting security forces to return fire. Nineteen people were killed, including security forces, the provincial governor told state television. Twenty people were injured.
\nState media reported that the elite Revolutionary Guards\u2019 intelligence chief in Sistan and Baluchistan province was killed in Zahedan during clashes with \u201cterrorists\u201d.
\nA video on social media showed aid being given to several injured protesters by their comrades, one of whom was trying to limit bleeding from a man who appeared to be shot in the neck.
\nAmid reports of a planned student strike, authorities said Zahedan university will hold distance learning until Oct. 8, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.
\nInternet watchdog NetBlocks said on Twitter that Live network data show a regional internet disruption in effect in Zahedan.
\nSoutheastern Iran, home to the Baluch ethnic minority, has also seen demonstrators torching government offices in at least one city. State news agency IRNA said an attempt to assassinate a judge in the town of Saravan had failed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBAI Iran, which has blamed \u201cforeign enemies\u201d for protests that swept the country after the death of a woman in morality police custody, said on Friday it had arrested nine European nationals for their role in the unrest. The detention of citizens of Germany, Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries is likely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-286998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n