Tehran: Iran has for the first time reported that more than 300 people have died in over two months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody.
The Islamic republic has deployed state security forces against what it labels "riots" that broke out after the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian died on September 16, three days after her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran's dress code for women.
"Everyone in the country has been affected by the death of this lady," said Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a video published by the Mehr news agency. "I don't have the latest figures, but I think we have had perhaps more than 300 martyrs and people killed," among them some of "the best sons of the country", said Hajizadeh, head of the Guards' aerospace division.
The toll includes those who have taken to the streets as well as dozens of police, troops and IRGC militia who have died in clashes with demonstrators or who were killed elsewhere.