Fresh unrest reported in Iran’s oil-rich province

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 27 – Clashes continued for the fourth successive day between government forces and protesters in the southern city of Ahwaz, eye-witnesses reported.
The city’s local state-run radio urged residents to stay at home as security forces imposed curfew on the areas of the city inhabited by ethnic Arabs. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jul. 27 – Clashes continued for the fourth successive day between government forces and protesters in the southern city of Ahwaz, eye-witnesses reported.

The city’s local state-run radio urged residents to stay at home as security forces imposed curfew on the areas of the city inhabited by ethnic Arabs.

The Deputy Revolutionary Prosecutor of Ahwaz confirmed on Tuesday that 12 people had been arrested “in the disturbances that have been going on for the past two days in Shilang-Abad district of Ahwaz”.

The deputy prosecutor, Hojjatol-Islam Saeed Saadi, was quoted by the official news agency, IRNA, as saying that “a number of agitators provoked the people and burnt car tyres on the streets and set fire to Saderat Bank in the area.

Dozens of protesters, who want an end to the Islamic regime’s discriminatory policies against ethnic Arabs, have been arrested in the past three days. Most of the detainees are being interrogated in the detention centre of the Ahwaz offices of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security alongside the studios of the local state-run radio in the city’s Amanieh district. Other are being kept in Sepidar Prison, near the city’s main jail, Karoun Prison.

More antigovernment protests were reported after nightfall on Wednesday in the districts of Kian, Amanieh,

Ahwaz, provincial capital of Khuzistan, is home to Iran’s ethnic Arab population and has been a hotbed of anti-government demonstrations. The latest round of violence started Sunday evening as authorities tried to prevent protests from escalating. Live rounds were used to fight off demonstrators.

Protestors chanted anti-government slogans and demanded an end to the government’s “ethnic cleansing” policy.

Witnesses have reported at least four civilian deaths at the hands of agents of the SSF.

Dozens of people were reportedly killed in week-long clashes between mainly ethnic Arab protesters and security forces in Ahwaz and several other cities in Iran’s Khuzistan province in April. The strategic area contains much of Iran’s oilfields.