The crackdown on protests sparked in Iran by the September 16 death of young Mahsa Amini after her arrest by vice squad has left at least 448 people dead, a human rights group said on Tuesday (November 29th).
The toll only includes citizens killed in the crackdown and not members of the security forces.
Of the 448 people whose death has been confirmed, 60 were under the age of 18, including nine girls, and 29 women, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) based in Norway.
Dozens of law enforcement officers killed
Sixteen people have been killed by security forces over the past week, including 12 in areas populated by the Kurdish minority where protests have been particularly large.
The balance sheet rose in particular after the verification of the deaths reported during the previous weeks, underlines the NGO.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian authorities for the first time reported more than 300 people dead in the unrest since mid-September, a tally that included dozens of law enforcement personnel killed in clashes with protesters or murdered, according to Tehran.
Read alsoIn the Middle East, the demonstrations of support for Mahsa Amini want to reshuffle the cards of the status of women
The UN Human Rights Council decided last Thursday, despite opposition from Tehran and Beijing, to open an international investigation into the repression of the demonstrations.
“
The authorities of the Islamic Republic know very well that cooperation on their part with the UN fact-finding mission would reveal crimes on a larger scale
,” said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry- Moghaddam.
"
That's why non-cooperation on their part is to be expected
," he added.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said more than half of the deaths were recorded in areas populated by Sunni Baloch or Kurdish ethnic minorities.
Massive protest movement
The highest number of deaths was recorded in the region of Sistan-Baluchistan (southeast), where 128 people were killed after demonstrations unrelated to the protest movement sparked by the death of the young Iranian Kurdish Mahsa Amini, even if they have fueled anger against power across the country, according to the NGO.
After that, the highest number of deaths were recorded in the western provinces of Kurdish-populated Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan, where 53 and 51 people were killed respectively, the same source added.
