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WORLD NEWS Thursday 27 OcTOber 2022

Gunmen attack major Shiite holy site in Iran, killing 15

By The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emir-
ates (AP) — Gunmen at-
tacked a major Shiite holy
site in Iran on Wednesday,
killing at least 15 people
and wounding dozens. The
attack came as protesters
elsewhere in Iran marked
a symbolic 40 days since a
woman’s death in custody
ignited the biggest anti-
government movement in
over a decade.
State TV blamed the attack
on “takfiris,” a term that re-
fers to Sunni Muslim extrem-
ists who have targeted the
country’s Shiite majority in
the past. The attack ap-
peared to be unrelated to
the demonstrations.
The official website of the In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and
judiciary said two gunmen obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people block an intersection during a protest to mark
were arrested and a third 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose tragedy sparked Iran’s
biggest antigovernment movement in over a decade, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.
is on the run after the at- Associated Press
tack on the Shah Cheragh
mosque, the second holi- Cemetery. Women ripped “This year is a year of Kurds along Iran’s border
est site in Iran. The state-run off their headscarves, or blood!” they also chanted. with Iraq.
IRNA news agency report- hijabs, and waved them “(Supreme Leader Ayatol- Since the protests erupted,
ed the death toll and state above their heads. Other lah Ali Khamenei) will be security forces have fired
TV said 40 people were videos showed a mas- toppled!” live ammunition and tear
wounded. sive procession making its Riot police on motorbikes gas to disperse demon-
An Iranian news website way along a highway and were out in force. A large strations, killing over 200
considered to be close to through a dusty field to- group of men and wom- people, according to rights
the Supreme National Se- ward Amini’s grave. There en marched through the groups.
curity Council reported were reports of road clo- streets, setting trash cans Untold numbers have been
that the attackers were sures in the area. ablaze and shouting Death arrested, with estimates in
foreign nationals, without State-linked media report- to the dictator!” as cars the thousands. Iranian ju-
elaborating. ed 10,000 protesters in the honked their support. Po- dicial officials announced
Such attacks are rare in procession to her grave. lice unleashed anti-riot this week they would bring
Iran, but last April, an as- Hengaw, a Kurdish human bullets at protesters in the over 600 people to trial
sailant stabbed two clerics rights group, said secu- streets and sprayed pel- over their role in the pro-
to death at the Imam Reza rity forces fired tear gas to lets upward at journalists tests, including 315 in Teh-
shrine, the country’s most disperse demonstrators. filming from windows and ran, 201 in the neighboring
revered Shiite site, in the The semiofficial ISNA news rooftops. Anti-government Alborz province and 105 in
northeast city of Mashhad. agency said security forces chants also echoed from the southwestern province
Earlier on Wednesday, fired pellets at crowds of the University of Tehran of Khuzestan.
thousands of protesters had demonstrators on the out- campus. Tehran prosecutor Ali Sale-
poured into the streets of a skirts of Saqez and pushed Amini, detained for alleg- hi told the state-run IRNA
northwestern city to mark back demonstrators who edly violating the coun- news agency that four pro-
the watershed 40 days tried to attack the gover- try’s strict dress code for testers were charged with
since the death in custody nor’s office. It said local in- women, remains the po- “war against God,” which
of 22-year-old Mahsa Ami- ternet access was cut off tent symbol of protests that is punishable by death in
ni, whose tragedy sparked due to “security consider- have posed one of the Iran.
the protests. ations.” most serious challenges to Iranian officials have
Deaths are commemorat- State-run media an- the Islamic Republic. blamed the protests on for-
ed in Shiite Islam as in many nounced that schools and With the slogan #Woman- eign interference, without
other traditions again 40 universities in Iran’s north- LifeFreedom, the demon- offering evidence.
days later, typically with western region would strations first focused on Last week, Iran imposed
an outpouring of grief. In close, purportedly to curb women’s rights and the sanctions on over a dozen
Amini’s Kurdish hometown “the spread of influenza.” state-mandated hijab, or European officials, com-
of Saqez, the birthplace of In downtown Tehran, the headscarf for women. But panies and institutions, in-
the nationwide unrest now capital, major sections of they quickly evolved into cluding foreign-based Farsi
roiling Iran, crowds snaked the traditional grand ba- calls to oust the Shiite cler- channels that have exten-
through the local cemetery zaar closed in solidarity with ics that have ruled Iran sively covered the protests,
and thronged her grave. the protests. since the 1979 Islamic Rev- accusing them of “support-
“Death to the dictator!” Crowds clapped and olution. ing terrorism.” The sanctions
protesters cried, according shouted “Freedom! Free- The protests have also gal- involve an entry and visa
to video footage that cor- dom! Freedom!” through vanized university students, ban for the staffers in addi-
responds with known fea- the labyrinthine market- labor unions, prisoners and tion to the confiscation of
tures of the city and Aichi place. ethnic minorities like the their assets in Iran. q