Iranian regime targets Kurdish town in crackdown on protests

Iran has deployed troops to a Kurdish-majority town in an attempt to regain control of the town seized by protesters in recent days.

“The regime is actively terrorizing innocent Iranians in the Kurdish town of Mahabad and has also cut off their electricity and internet,” Foreign Desk editor Lisa Daftari told Fox News Digital.

Daftari’s comments come after ceremonies were held on Sunday for two protesters who were recently killed in the small, Kurdish-majority town of Mahabad, according to a report by Iran International Sunday. These ceremonies quickly turned into fierce protests and protesters took over the city.

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Gunshots could be heard in videos taken across the city as protests escalated, with the Iranian regime eventually responding by cutting off electricity and internet access in parts of Mahabad.

Videos posted on social media showed the streets of Mahabad filled with military vehicles as authorities apparently imposed martial law in the city. In one incident, people gathered for what was supposed to be a speech by the governor, but Iranian forces opened fire on the crowd, causing an as-yet-unknown number of casualties.

“On Saturday evening, November 19, the Iranian regime appears to have imposed martial laws in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) terrorists reportedly entered Mahabad with heavy military weapons and equipment. The lives of many people are in danger,” the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party said in a statement on the situation on Saturday.

Iranians protest the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by vice squad in Tehran in September.
(AP Photo/Middle East Images, file)

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The party called on human rights organizations not to remain silent on “the massacre of the Kurdish people”, arguing that the international community’s silence will only embolden the Iranian regime.

Iranian authorities have struggled to contain protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amin at the hands of police in September.

As those protests still rage, Daftari said the country’s Kurdish minority served as a natural target for the regime’s violent crackdown.

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Iranians are protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by vice squad in September.
(AP Images/Middle East, file)

“It is no coincidence that the regime is particularly determined to kill Kurds inside and outside its borders,” Daftari said. “During the ongoing revolution, which has now lasted for more than two months, the regime has used every opportunity to violently suppress peaceful protesters as the world stands idly by. The people of Iran call on the mainstream media to cover their Western movement and media leaders to support them in their endeavour.