Iranian Security Forces Clash With Kurdish Protesters; Casualties Reported

Violent clashes erupted between Iranian armed forces and protesters in a western Kurdish city, leaving several people injured, local sources say.

The sources said the violence occurred in Dehloran on the evening of February 14, after a group of demonstrators gathered at a central square and attempted to destroy a statue honoring the paramilitary Basij forces.

When security forces intervened to disperse the demonstrators, fires were shot from both sides, they said.

The governor of Dehloran announced that one police officer was injured and taken to hospital after what he described as an "act against security."

Local sources said that two civilians and two security forces were wounded.

The official IRNA news agency reported that the protesters set tires on fire and tried to throw incendiary materials toward the square.

According to the report, all those involved in the violence have been arrested. It did not say how many arrests were made.

Dehloran is in Ilam province.

Iran has been swept by anti-government protests since the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.

The authorities have cracked down on the demonstrations, which pose one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy installed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Activists say security forces have killed more than 520 people and detained over 19,000 in connection with the protests. Following unlawful detentions and biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.

The demonstrations and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in the country’s western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan province, home to Iran’s beleaguered Sunni Baluch community.