State media: Gunmen attack bazaar in Iran, killing 5
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Gunmen opened fire in a bazaar in the southwestern Iranian city of Izeh on Wednesday, killing at least five people, including a young girl, and wounding civilians and security forces, state TV reported.
It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack or if it was linked to the nationwide protests that have convulsed Iran over the past two months. Another 10 people, including security forces, were wounded in the shooting, according to state TV.
Valiollah Hayati, deputy governor of the Khuzestan province, where the city is located, told state TV that a young girl and a woman were among those killed.
State TV said that groups of several dozens of protesters had gathered in different parts of Izeh late Wednesday, chanting anti-government slogans and hurling rocks at police, who fired tear gas to disperse them. State-linked media also reported that someone set fire to a Shiite religious seminary.
Violent clashes have erupted around some of the protests as security forces have clamped down on dissent. Iran has also seen a number of recent attacks blamed on separatists and religious extremists, including a shooting at a major Shiite shrine last month that killed over a dozen people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
The demonstrations were ignited by the Sept. 16 death of a 22-year-old woman who was being held by the country's morality police and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran's ruling clerics and an end to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Authorities have heavily restricted media access and periodically shut down the internet, making it difficult to confirm details of unrest in different parts of the country.
The violence in Izeh took place on the second day of a...