At least three people have been killed in Iran's southwestern province of Khuzestan following nearly a week of protests against water shortages, local media reported.
Wealthy Khuzestan is Iran's main oil-producing region, but it is struggling with a persistent drought that last week sparked protests over a lack of water.
Three people, including a police officer, have been reportedly killed.
The officer was shot in the port city of Mahshahr during “riots” on Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency said, quoting acting county governor Fereydoun Bandari.
“One officer was martyred and another injured in the leg,” Bandari said, although he did not specifically link the shooting to protests over water shortages.
There were protests in Izeh and Susangerd counties over “the water situation”, state TV said, reporting that “opportunists” had turned calm gatherings into clashes with the police.
In Izeh, a “young person” was shot dead by “rioters” and 14 police officers were injured, local governor Hassan Nobovati told Fars news agency.
Nobovati did not explicitly say if the victim was a protester.
On Saturday, state media reported a protester had been shot dead in the town of Shadegan by “opportunists and rioters”.
“The people of Khuzestan are staging nightly protests, protests that have been festering for years,” the reformist newspaper Arman-e Melli said on Tuesday.
In recent days, Farsi-language media based abroad have broadcast videos they said showed protests in Ahvaz, Hamidiyeh, Izeh, Mahshahr, Shadegan and Susangerd.
They said security forces had forcibly dispersed protesters, but domestic media played down the reports.
The videos show hundreds of marching people, chanting slogans against authorities, while surrounded by anti-riot police. In some, what sounded like gunfire could be heard.
The videos shared on social media could not be independently verified.
from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/3eHDPMf
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