An attack on a police station in Iran has left 19 dead as protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini continue to convulse the country.
The attack took place in the city of Zahedan. Among the dead were four members of Iran’s elite revolutionary guard members, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Saturday.
The dead guard members were identified as Hamidreza Hashemi, a Revolutionary Guard colonel; Mohammad Amin Azarshokr, a Guard member; Saeed Borhan Rigi, a Basiji, or volunteer force with the IRG; and Mohamad Amin Arefi, also a Basiji.
The head of the Guard’s intelligence department, Seyyed Ali Mousavi, was shot and killed during the attack, the Washington Post reported.
It’s unclear whether the attack was related to the Amini protests. The 22-year-old Iranian woman died while in police custody after she was arrested by the country’s “morality police” for not wearing a veil in public. Advocates as well as her family contend she died after being tortured.
Gen. Hossein Salami, boss of the Revolutionary Guard, vowed the deaths would be avenged.
“We consider revenge for the blood of the IRGC and Basiji martyrs and the people who were victims of the Black Friday crime in Zahedan to be on our agenda,” he told IRNA.
Riots and protests continued in downtown Tehran on Saturday as people chanted “death to dictator” witnesses report seeing tear gas fired into the crowds.