Violent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces took place in several locations in Iran on Wednesday as a wave of unrest sparked by the country’s economic crisis continued for an 11th day.Videos posted on social media showed a tense stand-off between protesters and security forces, with the sound of gunfire in the background. In footage from several other areas, security forces appeared to fire guns and tear gas towards crowds of protesters, some of whom were throwing stones.A video, which is going viral on social media, showed the moment a protester drove his car into several security forces in Mashhad. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported that two policemen were shot and killed by armed individuals in the south-western town of Lordegan. It added that the officers, whom it named as Hadi Azarsalim and Moslem Mahdavinasab, were shot dead by “armed individuals” who had been among a group of what it called “rioters”.The protests spread to 111 cities and towns across all 31 provinces, according to the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA). It reported that at least 34 protesters and four security personnel were killed during the unrest, and that 2,200 protesters were arrested. BBC Persian confirmed the deaths and identities of 21 people, while Iranian authorities reported the deaths of five security personnel.The protests began on 28 December, when shopkeepers took to the streets of the capital, Tehran, to express their anger at another sharp fall in the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, against the US dollar on the open market. The rial sank to a record low over the past year and inflation soared to 40% as sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme squeezed an economy also weakened by govt mismanagement and corruption.University students soon joined the protests and they began spreading to other cities, with crowds frequently heard chanting slogans against the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sometimes in support of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s late former shah.
