Several people killed as protests spread across Iran

Several people have been killed in Iran amid growing social unrest, according to reports on Thursday.

With Iran mired in economic crisis, the country has been gripped by protests that began with a merchants' strike in Tehran and have since spread to other cities.

The semi-official Iranian media agency, Fars, reported Thursday that two people had been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in the western city of Lordegan.

Three people were killed in Azna, in the neighboring province of Lorestan, Fars reported.

A human rights group, Hengaw, also said there had been deaths in the city. Hengaw said security forces had killed and wounded several protesters after firing on them.

The group also said another protester was shot dead in the central Isfahan province on Wednesday.

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Meanwhile, the state-run IRNA news agency said a volunteer member of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's Basij force was killed on Wednesday night in Kuhdasht, in the west of the country. The death is the first among Iran's security forces since the unrest began on Sunday.

The Basij volunteer force is loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader ​Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which operates in parallel to Iran's armed forces and reports directly to the Ayatollah.

The Student News Network, believed to be close to the Basij, cited a deputy governor of Lorestan province as saying that the Guard member was "martyred at the hands of rioters during protests."

A further 13 Basij force members and police officers were injured in the clashes, Saeed Pourali said, according to the Student News Network.

Many social media users in Iran, however, have disputed the authorities' version of events.

The protests are the biggest since the Women, Life, Freedom movement following the death in police custody in 2022 of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

Those protests were suppressed by a brutal crackdown that saw hundreds killed and thousands jailed.

There are fears that the death of the 21-year-old volunteer security official could mark the beginning of a new crackdown by Iran's theocratic regime against the demonstrations, which are the most serious challenge to the Islamic regime since the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

Protests have swept across Iran in recent days. The unrest began with a merchants' strike in Tehran on December 28 against the severe economic crisis gripping the country, which has seen the value of its currency plummet to an all-time low, while inflation soared to over 40% in December.

The Iranian economy has struggled for years due to Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.

The unrest has grown into broader demands for political change as students and other segments of the population have joined the protests in cities across the country.

In response, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has replaced the central bank chief and has instructed his interior minister to listen to the protesters' "legitimate demands."

During an event broadcast on state television, Pezeshkian said, "From an Islamic perspective... if we do not resolve the issue of people's livelihoods, we will end up in hell."

But authorities have also warned protesters against exploiting the situation, promising a "firm" response to the unrest.