The Mahshahr massacre ( fa, قتلعام ماهشهر) refers to the mass killing of protesters in the city of
Mahshahr,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, which occurred between 16 November and 20 November 2019, during the
2019–2020 Iranian protests
A series of nationwide civil protests in Iran, sometimes known as Bloody November or (using the Iranian calendar) Bloody Aban ( fa, آبان خونین) took place in 2019 and 2020. Initially caused by a 50–200% increase in fuel prices, they ...
.
Estimates of fatalities range between 40
[ and 150.]
Background
Protests erupted across Iran on 15 November 2019, after the government announced a sudden gasoline price hike, spreading to more than 100 cities nationwide. The protests quickly extended into opposition to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
and the current government.
Internet inside the country was completely shutdown by the government on 16 November which made reporting on the details nearly impossible.
Massacre
During the first few days of demonstrations in Mahshahr in mid-November, protesters gained control over much of the city. Security forces clashed with protestors in Mahshahr on 16 and 17 November, and attempted to suppress protests between 16 and 18 November in the suburbs of Sarbandar and Jarahi.
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', based on interviews with residents, including a journalist and a nurse at the hospital where casualties of the crackdown were treated, dated the arrival of a large force of Revolutionary Guards
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
to 18 November. According to The New York Times, Revolutionary Guard forces entered ''Shahrak Chamran'', a suburb of Mahshahr, and indiscriminately shot at protesters, several who died. Other protestors gathered in a marsh near the location of the initial killing. One protestor, "apparently armed with an AK-47", according to The New York Times, fired at the Revolutionary Guards. Iranian state media described the protestors in these events as a "separatist group" armed with "semi-heavy weapons."
The Revolutionary Guards responded immediately by encircling the protestors in the marsh and shot them with machine guns, killing 100. The Guards carried the dead away on "a truck" and left, while families of survivors carried them to Memko Hospital.
According to Iranwire
Maziar Bahari ( fa, مازیار بهاری; born May 25, 1967) is an Iranian-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist. He was a reporter for ''Newsweek'' from 1998 to 2011. Bahari was incarcerated by the Iranian government from Ju ...
, some of the security forces involved were killed.
A second lethal incident took place in the ''Shahrak Taleghani'' district of Mahshahr on 19 November, in which Revolutionary Guards arrived in tanks and carried out an hours-long gun battle against local ethnic Arabs. One senior Guards commander was killed. A protest organiser interviewed by The New York Times was shot in the ribs during the battle. A nurse stated to The New York Times that she had treated people wounded in the battle and most had head and chest gunshot wounds. Some of the wounded protestors were arrested in the hospital.
Casualties
Initial reports from Mahshahr suggested that over 130 protesters had been killed by security forces in the three days of fighting. The New York Times report, which was published two weeks after the incident, suggested that between 40 and 100 protesters had been killed in Mahshahr and its suburbs. On 17 December 2019, an anonymous unnamed official from the province of Khuzestan
Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...
told IranWire that a total of 148 protesters had lost their lives during five days of protests in Mahshahr.
Aftermath
On 25 November, Mohamad Golmordai, Mahshahr representative in the Iranian parliament
The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...
, expressed his anger at the massacre in a speech in parliament that was broadcast on state television. He "screamed", according to The New York Times, "What have you done that the undignified Shah did not do?".
On 18 January 2020, the U.S. State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
sanctioned Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour, as being responsible for the Massacre of Mahshahr.
See also
*2019–2020 Iranian protests
A series of nationwide civil protests in Iran, sometimes known as Bloody November or (using the Iranian calendar) Bloody Aban ( fa, آبان خونین) took place in 2019 and 2020. Initially caused by a 50–200% increase in fuel prices, they ...
References
{{Protests in Iran
2019 mass shootings in Asia
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Mahshahr County
Protests in Iran
2019–2020 Iranian protests
Massacres in Iran
Protest-related deaths
2019 crimes in Iran
Massacres in 2019