TEHRAN - Deputy Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ali Fadavi said on Sunday that rioters shot at ordinary people from a very close distance.

“Rioters, by using colts, shot at abdomen of the people from a distance of one or one and half meters (1.5 m) and killed them,” Fadavi told a gathering of Basiji women at the hall of the Interior Ministry.

Fadavi said details of violent acts will be released to public later.

The riots followed demonstrations in some cities in protest to increase in petrol price. Hooligans and opportunists took the lead in the protest by committing violent acts.  

The announcement to increase petrol price was announced at nighttime on November 14. It went into force a day later.

Elsewhere Fadavi said, “Certain neighbors did not respect good neighborliness and Islamic principles and took evil acts in the recent riots.”

Fadavi also said that the Iranian security and police forces contained the riots within 48 hours

The top general said the riots were instigated by the U.S., France, Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia. However, he said, the plots were foiled in a short time.

Ayatollah Khamenei said late on Tuesday that the Iranians have repelled the enemy in various military, political and security arenas.

“Both friends and foes should know that we have repelled the enemy in military, political and security issues,” the Leader stated.

“The recent actions were security issues, not from the people. We have repelled the enemy in various areas, and by God’s grace, we will also definitely repel the enemy in the economic war,” Ayatollah Khamenei remarked.

The governor of the western province of Kermanshah said on Sunday that rioters affiliated to terrorist groups such as Daesh, PJAK and the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) have been identified in the province, according to Press TV.

The provincial capital of the same name near the border with Iraq was one of the few cities where armed bandits went on a rampage, taking advantage of peaceful protests against the decision to hike petrol prices.

Governor Houshang Bazvand said the attackers had targeted ordinary people and security forces alike and destroyed public property and major economic and business places in the city.

“Saboteurs and rioters torched many businesses in Kermanshah,” he said. “They were linked to PJAK, Daesh, Monafeqin (MKO) and anti-establishment groups, but they have all been identified by the police and security forces and will be dealt with legally” for their crimes.

Daesh has never had a base in Iran, but it has reportedly attracted a few members in Iranian towns and villages close to the Iraqi border in the west.   

PJAK is a terrorist group with bases in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq that has perpetrated occasional hit-and-run attacks in western Iran, where Kurdish populations live.

The MKO is a notorious terrorist cult responsible for the deaths of more than 17,000 Iranians, including senior officials and ordinary people. Until recent years, the group was listed as a terrorist organization by the international community, but the U.S. and Europeans are now courting it with much audacity as a leverage against Iran.  

IRGC spokesman General Ramezan Sharif told Tasnim in an interview published on Saturday that the main elements behind the riots in different cities have been arrested by the IRGC Intelligence Organization.
Sharif appreciated the efforts of the security forces in separating counter-revolutionaries and hooligans from the ordinary people in the protests and said the forces managed to control about 100 cities which were the scene of protests.

First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri on Saturday warned "certain regional countries" that they will be in trouble if they are proven to have been involved in riots in Iran.

"Certain regional countries should know that if clues are found that show they intervened to create unrest inside Iran, they will see no peaceful time in the region," Jahangiri warned.
He added that Iran is not a country with which you can play such games.
"If it is found that others have interfered in Iran’s domestic affairs to inflict harm and losses on the Iranian nation, they will definitely receive a crushing response," Jahangiri added.

NA