The government says the attackers fatally shot multiple civilians and security officers
At least five people were killed in the Iranian city of Izeh on Wednesday, as armed gunmen opened fire on civilians with automatic weapons, local officials said. Attacks on security personnel were also reported in two other Iranian cities, Isfahan and Qorveh. No group has claimed responsibility yet.
According to Valiollah Hayati from the Khuzestan provincial governor’s office, at 5:30pm local time, two men on motorcycles opened fire on the marketplace in Izeh using “military weapons” and killing “five citizens so far.” Among them were an elderly woman and a child, he added.
The death toll may rise, as multiple people have been admitted to local hospitals with gunshot wounds and are “in critical condition,” Hayati told Press TV. The attack happened as security forces were trying to disperse a group of rioters, Iranian officials said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which the government in Tehran describes as an act of terrorism. In a possibly related incident, a religious school for women in Izeh has been set on fire by rioters.
Two members of the Basij security militia were fatally shot in a separate attack in Isfahan, also by gunmen riding motorcycles, the state news agency IRNA reported.
A similar shooting took place in Qorveh, in the Kurdistan province, according to a tweet by Tehran University professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi.
“Western/Saudi intelligence agencies are shifting from failed riots to open terror,” he added.
Marandi was referring to the riots that have shaken Iran since mid-September, after the death of a young woman in police custody. Mahsa Amini, 22, was reportedly arrested for not wearing her hijab properly. Iranian authorities insist her death was due to a pre-existing condition, while critics of the Islamic revolutionary government say she was murdered and demand “regime change.”
Anti-government activists have flooded social media with claims such as that over 15,000 detained protesters had been sentenced to death – which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared, but then deleted after it turned out to be fake news.
