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Protesters and security forces have clashed in three Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out.

The protests began at the weekend in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, and have since spread to other parts of the country.

This week, Iran’s Fars news agency reported two people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in the city of Lordegan, in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and three in Azna, in neighbouring Lorestan province.

“Some protesters began throwing stones at the city’s administrative buildings, including the provincial governor’s office, the mosque, the Martyrs’ Foundation, the town hall and banks,” Fars said of Lordegan, adding police responded with tear gas.

Fars reported that the buildings were “severely damaged” and that police arrested several people described as “ringleaders”.

In Azna, Fars said “rioters took advantage of a protest gathering ... to attack a police commissariat”.

During previous protest movements, state media has labelled demonstrators “rioters”.

State television reported that a member of Iran’s security forces was killed during protests in the western city of Kouhdasht.

“A 21-year-old member of the Basij from the city of Kouhdasht was killed last night by rioters while defending public order,” the channel said, citing Said Pourali, the deputy governor of Lorestan Province.

The Basij are a volunteer paramilitary force linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic republic.

Pourali said that “during the demonstrations in Kouhdasht, 13 police officers and Basij members were injured by stone throwing”.

In the western city of Hamedan, protesters torched a motorbike in what the Tasnim news agency described as an unsuccessful attempt to burn down a mosque.

The same agency reported on Thursday (local time) that 30 people in a district of Tehran had been arrested the night before for alleged public order offences in a “co-ordinated operation by the security and intelligence services”.

‘End up in hell’

The demonstrations are smaller than the last major outbreak of unrest in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.

The latest protests began peacefully in the capital and spread after students from at least 10 universities joined in.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has sought to calm tensions, acknowledging protesters’ “legitimate demands”, and called on the government to take action to improve the economic situation.

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

Authorities, however, have also promised to take a “firm” stance, and have warned against exploiting the situation to sow chaos.

Local media coverage of the demonstrations has varied, with some outlets focusing on economic difficulties, and others on incidents caused by “troublemakers”.

Iran is in the middle of an extended weekend, with the authorities declaring Wednesday a bank holiday at the last minute, citing the need to save energy during the cold weather.

They made no official link to the protests.

The weekend in Iran begins on Thursday, and Saturday is a long-standing national holiday.

Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that peaceful economic protests were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response”.

“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response.”

Viral video

Earlier this week, a video showing a person sitting in the middle of a Tehran street facing down motorcycle police went viral on social media, with some seeing it as a “Tiananmen moment” – a reference to the famous image of a Chinese protester defying a column of tanks during 1989 anti-government protests in Beijing.

On Thursday, state television alleged the footage had been staged to “create a symbol” and aired another video purportedly shot from another angle by a police officer’s camera.

Sitting cross-legged, the protester remains impassive, head bowed, before covering his head with his jacket as behind him a crowd flees clouds of tear gas.

On Wednesday evening, Tasnim reported the arrest of seven people it described as being affiliated with “groups hostile to the Islamic Republic based in the United States and Europe”.

It said they had been “tasked with turning the demonstrations into violence”. Tasnim did not say when they were arrested.

The national currency, the rial, has lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar over the past year, while double-digit hyperinflation has been undermining Iranians’ purchasing power for years.

The inflation rate in December was 52% year-on-year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, an official body.

– Agence France-Presse