Iran claims more than 200 killed in month-long protests

The Iranian authorities claimed on Saturday more than 200 people had been killed in the country’s month-long protests.

In a statement published in Tehran, the state security council of the country’s interior ministry said several security agents had been killed in the unrest which started in September.

Other victims include those killed in “terrorist acts, others felled by foreign-affiliated groups and framed as killed by the state, “rioters” and “armed anti-revolutionary elements who were members of secessionist groups.”

The announcement came a few days after Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a top general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said more than 300 people had been killed during the unrest.

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The figures are lower than those provided by a number of foreign-based rights organisations, which put the death toll at more than 400.

Protests erupted across Iran shortly after the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s “morality police” in Tehran for alleged non-compliance with a mandatory dress code.

Iranian authorities have accused the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia of being behind the unrest.

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