Iran Protests Enter Second Week as Trump Issues Warning

New deadly clashes between protesters and security forces erupted in Iran over the weekend, rights groups and local media said, as demonstrations first sparked by anger over the rising cost of living entered a second week.

At least 12 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed since the protests kicked off with a shopkeeper’s strike in Tehran on December 28, according to a toll based on official reports.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran that it would get “hit very hard” by the United States if more protesters die during demonstrations.

Overnight, protests featuring slogans criticizing the Islamic republic’s clerical authorities were reported in Tehran, Shiraz in the south, and in areas of western Iran where the movement has been concentrated, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) monitor.

The Norway-based Hengaw rights group said that Revolutionary Guards opened fire on protesters in the Malekshahi county of the western Ilam province on Saturday, killing four members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.

The Iran Human Rights NGO, also based in Norway, gave an identical toll of four dead, as well as 30 wounded, after “security forces attacked the protests” in Malekshahi.

The protests have taken place in 23 out of 31 provinces and affected, to varying degrees, at least 40 different cities, most of them small and medium-sized, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements and media reports. (AFP)