Senior commander killed in Iran clashes

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 17 – A senior paramilitary police commander was killed last night in the course of clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces in Iran’s Kurdish town of Mahabad, the state-run television reported on Sunday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jul. 17 – A senior paramilitary police commander was killed last night in the course of clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces in Iran’s Kurdish town of Mahabad, the state-run television reported on Sunday.

“In the wake of the unrest of the past few days, last night one of the commanders of the State Security Forces was stabbed to death in the town by an assailant”, Iran’s Channel 2 TV station reported this evening.

The report added that the provincial security council met today to study ways of bringing the situation under control.

“Government offices, homes and cars have been damaged in the course of the incidents that have occurred in Mahabad in the past few days”, the television said.

Last Sunday, agents of the State Security Forces opened fire on Shovan Qaderi and two of his friends in the town of Mahabad. The security forces then tied Qaderi’s body to a Toyota jeep and dragged him in the streets, according to eye-witnesses.

Since then, several hundred people in Mahabad have been arrested during numerous hit-and-run clashes and house-to-house raids.