US Hostage Leaves Iranian Prison As Tehran Source Reports Prisoner Deal

The demonstrations led to clashes between protesters and security forces in the center of Baghdad as thousands of Iraqis had gathered around the city’s iconic Tahrir Square to mark three years since nationwide demonstrations erupted against endemic corruption that caused rampant unemployment and the country’s decaying infrastructure. Dozens of people were injured during the scuffles.

Protesters also chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic and demanded an end to its influence and interventions in Iraq. 

The latest protests in Baghdad come as Iraq has been mired in political paralysis since elections one year ago that have failed to bring in a new president, prime minister or government. 

According to Iraqi media reports, Iran-backed militia groups in Basra fired several Iranian-made rockets at people's houses on Friday night. This is the latest attack in a wave of missile and drone strikes by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards targeted at Kurdish groups in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. 

Amid nationwide protests in Iran sparked by the death in custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has stepped up its attacks on the region, apparently aimed at intimidating the Kurds.

In solidarity with residents of Iraqi Kurdistan, many business owners have launched strikes in Iran’s Kordestan province and other western provinces with Kurdish population. 

Unions and guilds in 15 cities, including Orumiyeh (Urmia), Oshnavieh, Mahabad, Piranshahr, Sardasht, Saqqez, Marivan, Sanandaj, and Ilam are on a massive strike, Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported on Saturday. 

Last week, businesses in Kordestan held another round of strike in protest to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s attacks on Kurdish groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, which have killed dozens of people so far. Amid nationwide protests in Iran sparked by the death in custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has stepped up its attacks on the region, apparently aimed at intimidating the Kurds.

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The cooperation center of Kurdish parties of Iran called for the strikes in protest against the IRGC's missile and drone attacks on the civilian headquarters of these parties in the region. 

NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the Internet, also confirmed on Saturday that the Internet access has been shut down in most of the areas that are on strikes as well as the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan. 

Confirming the death, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news said in addition to Colonel Mousavi, three other members of IRGC and its Basij paramilitary force were killed and 32 of more injured in Zahedan clashes on Friday.

Zahedan was the scene of violent clashes between Iran’s security forces and armed groups that attacked three police stations in the afternoon and started shooting at 16 police stations.

According to unconfirmed reports by local Baluch sources from the mainly Sunni city of Zahedan, at least 42 people were killed and 200 more were injured on Friday as police opened fire at protesters.

Molavi Abdolhamid, the religious leader of Iran’s largely Sunni Baluch population living in the province and Iran's top Sunni cleric, has called on the Law Enforcement forces to crack down on protesters.

The Sunni cleric in Iran, sometimes critical of the government, confirmed reports last Friday about the rape of a 15-year-old girl in June by Colonel Ebrahim Khouchakzai, the commander of the police in the city of Chabahar. 

That incident and the current protests in other cities triggered the tensions in Zahedan on Friday.

Videos obtained by Iran International showed security forces violently cracking down on the protests in the city. 

Gunshots are heard in videos as protesters congregate outside a police station. Local sources say that angry protesters have managed to take control of a police station. In the videos, choppers are also seen flying over the protesters in the city. 

The government says protesters tried to storm three police station, but that cannot be verified from videos published on social media.

The official IRNA news agency has confirmed 19 deaths, but unofficial sources cite higher figures.

Molavi Abdolhamid, the religious leader of Iran’s largely Sunni Baluch population living in the province and Iran's top Sunni cleric, has called on the Law Enforcement forces to crack down on protesters.

The Sunni cleric in Iran, sometimes critical of the government, confirmed reports last Friday about the rape of a 15-year-old girl in June by Colonel Ebrahim Khouchakzai, the commander of the police in the city of Chabahar. 

That incident and the current protests in other cities triggered the tensions in Zahedan on Friday.

On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned an international network of companies involved in the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products to end users in South and East Asia.

Several Iranian brokers and front companies in the UAE, Hong Kong, and India that have facilitated financial transfers and shipping of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products were targeted in the new move.

“These entities have played a critical role in concealing the origin of the Iranian shipments and enabling two sanctioned Iranian brokers, Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (Triliance) and Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC), to transfer funds and ship Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals to buyers in Asia,” the Treasury said.

In addition to the measures by the Treasury, the Department of State designated two China-based entities, namely Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd. and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., for their involvement in Iran’s petrochemical trade.

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said, “The United States is committed to severely restricting Iran’s illicit oil and petrochemical sales. So long as Iran refuses a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States will continue to enforce its sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.”