State Security Forces have been instructed to use brute force to combat dissent in particular among young people in the latest in a series of extensions of police power on the streets.
In late-July, the recently appointed head of Irans State Security Forces announced that members of the Bassij, Islamist vigilantes loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were officially part of the law enforcement agencies.
The Bassij forces can assist agents of the State Security Forces in their activities, said Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam.
Earlier this week, the new Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad went even further and said members of the government-organised Ansar-e Hizbollah – the clerical regimes storm troopers were also part of the law enforcement machinery.
