Iran security forces kill boy, 13, as anti-government protest sweeps two cities

The city of Mahabad in western Iran has been placed under de facto martial law after three days of unrest and extensive clashes between residents and security forces. Anti-government protests were also reported in the nearby city of Marivan, on the Iran-Iraq border.
Clashes in Marivan occurred on Friday, as young people in the city’s Edareh Bargh Street challenged a security forces officer for accosting a girl. In the ensuing fighting that erupted between local residents and agents of the Special Anti-riot Guard, who came to the officer’s rescue, several security agents were injured and an unknown number of protesters arrested. Angry demonstrators chanted anti-regime slogans and smashed the windscreens of several patrol cars.
Clashes between anti-government protesters and paramilitary forces in Mahabad began on Wednesday evening, but reached its peak on Thursday night. Thousands of residents took to the streets to chant slogans against the mullahs’ regime. Agents of the Special Anti-riot Guard and Revolutionary Guards attacked the crowd, but young protesters fought back and hit-and-run clashes spread to several districts of the city. A thirteen-year-old boy was killed when a security agent hit him on the head with a truncheon, eye-witnesses said.
Throngs of protesters, angered by the boy’s cold-blooded murder, attacked government buildings and patrol cars. Local officials called for reinforcements from nearby cities to quell the protest. Clashes continued after midnight and dozens of protesters were wounded. Some members of the security forces 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 neighborhoods after midnight. No information is available on their fate.
Protests erupted again in some districts of Mahabad for the third consecutive night on Friday. Young people chanting anti-government slogans sealed off several streets with burning car tires.
The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the UN Secretary General and other international authorities to the clerical regime’s brutal and violent suppression of public dissent and protests. It calls for the immediate intervention of these international authorities to save the detainees from torture and execution.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 9, 2005