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Tehran, Apr. 09 - The city of Mahabad
(western Iranian province of Kurdistan) was placed
under de facto martial law after three days of
social unrest and numerous clashes between residents
and agents of Iran’s State Security Forces, leaving
one 13-year-old boy dead.
The 13-year-old boy was killed when an SSF agent hit
him on the head with a truncheon, according to
eye-witnesses.
Clashes between anti-government protesters and
security forces in Mahabad erupted on Wednesday
evening, but reached their peak on Thursday night.
Thousands of residents took to the streets to chant
slogans against the ruling authorities, witnesses
reported. SSF agents attacked the crowd but
protesters, who were mainly youths, took part in
hit-and-run clashes which spread to several
districts of the city.
Government buildings and patrol cars were attacked
after news spread of the death of the teenage boy. A
number of SSF agents were beaten up by
demonstrators.
Dozens of protesters were arrested during the unrest
or in the house-to-house searches that security
forces undertook in several neighbourhoods after
midnight. No information is available on their fate.
Protests erupted again in some districts of Mahabad
for the third consecutive night on Friday, with
young people chanting slogans against the regime and
sealing off several streets with burning car tires.
Protests were also reported in the nearby city of
Marivan, near the Iran-Iraq border.
Clashes in Marivan occurred yesterday, as young
people in the city’s Edareh Bargh Street challenged
a SSF officer for accosting a girl. Local people
took part in the ensuing fight and chanted
anti-regime slogans and smashed the windscreens of
several patrol cars.
A number of people there were reportedly arrested.
www.iranfocus.com
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