The Americans announced that the sanctions would be applied to the organization, and especially to Commander Hassan Shahbarpur, following the "massacre of innocents"

• Iranian protesters face security forces in latest round of riots // Photo: AFP

The US State Department announced Saturday that new sanctions will be applied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Organization. These are sanctions designed to hurt mainly the organization's senior commander, Hassan Shahbarpur, because his unit "was involved in the massacre of many innocent civilians during protests in Iran."

A State Department official said: "Revolutionary Guard units, under Shahbarpur's command, brutally killed 148 Iranian civilians by machine guns, after enclosing them in armored vehicles and igniting all vegetation in the vicinity so that civilians would not be where to hide."

Turbulent demonstrations in Tehran

The US State Department said the decision to include the senior on the blacklist of sanctions was made under U.S. law that punishes officials from foreign countries, and their families, when "there is reliable information about their involvement in blatant human rights violations." The information received about the Berfour came to the State Department from a series of intelligence and communications reports, it said.

The decision comes about a week after President Trump imposed new sanctions on the various industries in the Islamic Republic, as part of growing tensions between the states, with a view to curbing Iran's disruptive behavior in the region, and especially against its continued nuclear program. This, while in the background, is still a growing concern about another Iranian reaction, following the assassination of Quds Force commander in the Revolutionary Guards, Qasim Suleimani, earlier this month.