while waiting in a police station. She died a
few days later. Mahsa Amini had previously
had brain surgery and her collapse and death
were related to that, not to police action.
The protests by mostly women, and
supported by a
well known U.S. government employee, were
soon taken over by separatist groups who turned
them into riots. This especially in the
northwestern Kurdish border region and the
southeastern Baloch region. These groups are
know to have foreign support. Police stations
were attacked, cars were set on fire and night
riots set off. In total some 24 policemen and
some 100 protesters died.
It is not the first time that such riots are
happening in Iran. The
2007 riots were launched after peaceful
protests against a petrol price increase and the
2017 riots after peaceful protests over
general economic hardship. Each time the
protests were taken over by foreign directed
groups and ended in serious riots that caused
some death. After a month or two the situations
calmed down.
Something similar is happening now.
As usual the riots have 'western' media
support, most notoriously from the New York
Times. Here is a fine example:
‘It Was a Massacre’: How Security Forces Cracked
Down in Southeastern Iran
A New York Times analysis of witness
testimony and videos reveals a bloody scene that
unfolded last month in Zahedan during Friday
Prayer, with mats as stretchers and bodies piled
in cars.
Some of the wounded tried to crawl away to
escape the gunfire. Others bled to death on
prayer mats as people tried to drag them to
safety.
But the snipers and officers kept pulling
their triggers, firing bullet after bullet
into men and young boys at a worship area
where Friday Prayer had been underway.
That sounds as if the police were shooting at
will and unprovoked. But some details strewn
deeper throughout the story paint a very
different picture. If one cuts out the
propaganda trash about some video scenes and
anonymous Iranian voices making unverifiable
claims one can take a less obstructed look at
the real situation:
The horrific scene unfolded on Sept. 30 in
Zahedan, a city in southeastern Iran that is
home to the ethnic Baluch minority,
after a small group of worshipers emerged
from the Great Mosalla prayer complex to
confront security forces posted at a police
station across the street.
...
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, an
elite branch of the armed forces, has
confirmed that its forces were present in
Zahedan, and that six of its members
were killed that day, including its regional
intelligence chief, Col. Ali Mousavi, and
officers from the feared Basij militia.
They have denied firing on civilians.
Witnesses said that a number of
Iranian security officers were killed,
but that they died later during street
clashes.
The protesters chanted antigovernment
slogans and threw rocks at the officers,
prompting the security forces to fire
indiscriminately into the crowd, according
to witnesses. As the demonstrators
scattered, the gunshots stalked their
retreat back toward the complex, where
thousands were still praying
...
But according to the cleric and two other
witnesses, a group of 10 to 15 young
worshipers left the complex before prayers
had concluded to gather outside the police
station.
A video verified by The Times shows some
of the protesters throwing rocks at the
police station, where security forces stood
on the roof, as gunshots are heard.
Witnesses said that some protesters
hurled Molotov cocktails.
The forces responded with gunfire,
witnesses said.
One video verified by The Times shows two
men who appear to be in uniform standing
alongside another man on the roof of the
police station firing what seems to be
a pump-action shotgun in
the direction of the mosque.
...
As the day went on, more civilians swarmed
into the streets as they became aware of the
violence taking place in the city.
They were met with Persian-speaking
security forces, in traditional Baluch
clothing, who emerged from cars before
firing on the protesters, some of
whom fought back with Molotov cocktails and
bullets, according to witnesses.
Most of the clashes took place on a street
near the Makki mosque where hundreds had
gathered.
The riots in Zahedan were organized by some
well resourced group, likely
financed by this or that U.S. government
program:
The day before the shootings in Zahedan,
protesters began calling for a “broad
uprising” in “all of the towns of
Baluchestan,” as an act of “solidarity with
Kurdistan and in protest of the rape of the
Baluch girl,” according to a poster
advertising the demonstrations. The
Kurdistan region of Iran has also seen major
protests in recent weeks and has been
subject to attacks by government forces.
The alleged 'rape of the Baloch girl' is
unconfirmed and likely just another false
accusation.
To sum it up:
A group of well organized and armed
provocateurs attacked policemen and tried to set
a police station on fire. The police did not
agree with that. It used pump-action shotguns
with can be used with either birdshot or
anti-riot ammunition. More people came. Some of
them had guns.
Who actually shot the people and the IRGC men
who died is unexplained. Who the alleged
'snipers' were is also unexplained. The
Times presumes that they were police but
provides no evidence for that conclusion. Like
during the 2014 Maidan riots the snipers might
have been provocateurs hired to shot at both
sides, protesters and policemen.
Zahedan is near the at times unruly border
with Pakistan. That is why IRGC and other
security forces are stationed there.
I find this sentence somewhat funny:
They were met with Persian-speaking security
forces, in traditional Baluch clothing, ...
Is this supposed to be sinister?
While Baloch people often speak Balochi, it
is a local Iranian dialect. Persian (Farsi) is
the official government language of Iran and
taught in all schools. That some
'Persian-speaking' security forces were wearing
the usual local civil clothing (loose long
shirts without buttons) should not astonish
anyone. Such undercover tactics are used all
over the world.
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian is not amused about being
lectured by 'western' officials about police
behavior
during armed riots:
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian has underscored that Iran
is the anchor of stability and security in
the region and not the land of velvet or
colorful coup, slamming foreign intervention
by some Western countries in Iran.
In a phone call with High Representative
of the European Union for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy Josep Borrell, the
Iranian foreign minister said that, “the
death of the late Mahsa Amini is a painful
for all of us,” however, he pointed out that
this issue is just regarded as a pretext for
(intervention of) some western authorities.
...
“Peaceful demands are different from riots,
murders, arson, and terrorist operations,”
he pointed out.
On the same topic, the Iranian FM also
questioned “Who would believe that the death
of a girl is so important to Westerners? If
so, what did they do to the hundreds of
thousands of martyrs and dead in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon? They wanted
to start a sectarian war in Iran.”
...
The Iranian FM said that for instance, in
Zahedan, “there was no slogan or photo of
Mahsa, and a known terrorist group tried to
start a conflict between Shias and Sunnis,
and they claimed responsibility for it. (The
terrorist groups) did the same in part of
Kurdistan, but the insight of Sunni scholars
and people foiled their attempts.”
The riots have died down. The CIA will
prepare the separatist groups it finances for
another round to be launched when the next
random reason for some peaceful protest can be
found to hide in. Iran is by now well aware of
this tactic and its security forces are trained
to defend against such nonsense.
The Biden administration will use the Iranian
police action against rioters to justify that it
is breaking its election promise to reenter the
nuclear deal with Iran. The U.S. will not be
happy about the long term consequences of that
failure.
Views expressed in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
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