200 Iranians killed in riots provoked by separatist, terrorist groups

Iran's Interior Ministry says the enemy waged a hybrid war against the Islamic Republic to weaken national solidarity and hinder the country's progress.

In a statement published on Saturday, the Security Council of the Interior Ministry said some 200 people lost their lives in the riots sparked by separatist and terrorist groups since the outbreak in September.

The statement said a few number of rioters conducted acts of vandalism, violence and insecurity in Iran and paved the way for separatist and terrorist groups to infiltrate into the country and carry out brutal attacks against innocent people.

The ministry provided its first death toll that has come as a result of the riots so far and said the deceased include security forces, people killed in terrorist acts, innocent people who fell victim to the “false-flag killing project” by foreign-affiliated groups, rioters and armed counterrevolutionary elements who were members of secessionist groups.

It noted that the riots, which erupted over the death in police custody of a young Iranian woman in mid-September, have inflicted trillions of rials in damage to state, public and private property.

Mahsa Amini, 22, died in hospital three days after she collapsed in a police station. An investigation attributed her death to medical condition, dismissing allegations that she had been beaten by police forces.

In the past two months, and using the protests as a cover, rioters and thugs — many of whom were later found to have links with foreign parties — have been on a rampage, engaging in savage attacks on security officers, vandalism, desecration of sanctities, and false-flag killings of civilians to incriminate the Iranian police.

The riots also set the scene for terrorist attacks across the country.

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