Breaking: Iran's State TV confirms mass killings of protestors in #Mahshahr marshes. Commander of forces in Mahshahr says they were terrorists hiding in the marshes, they shot our forces & we foiled their plot w/ "brilliance."
#IranProtests
bbc.com/persian/iran-5…
#IranProtests
bbc.com/persian/iran-5…
2/ I interviewed witnesses, including family member & friend of 2 men killed in the marshes, who said the men were unarmed except for one. Among dead a 32 yr father of two & an unemployed 24 yr engineer.
3/ A local reporter who investigated the killings confirmed to me they were from the poorest neighborhood, almost all of them ethnic Arab minority & their protests were peaceful. This reporter was banned from telling the story.
4/ Until now the government had completely denied the killing in the marshes. With the story out, witnesses talking & videos leaking they had to make up a story. Branding ethnic Arabs as terrorists is the most plausible scenario for regime.
5/ If government had nothing to hide, then why was the release of the dead bodies conditional on families signing papers banning them from having funerals & talking to media?
6/ The Arab minority in Khuzestan & Mahshahr are already wounded & furious at the killings. Calling them terrorists & gloating about murdering them will only radicalize them & push them toward armed resistance.
