Daily Times

Iran’s leaders vowed Thursday to “punish” those behind a shooting that killed 15 worshippers at a Shiite Muslim shrine, as security forces pushed on with their deadly crackdown against women-led protests. In the latest violence, a rights group said, security forces killed a Kurdish man when protesters massed around government buildings in western Iran, a flashpoint area in almost six weeks of unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. As thousands mourned 22-year-old Amini on Wednesday, Iran was also rocked by an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group in which, state media said, a gunman killed at least 15 people at a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz. Ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the two tragedies when he declared that “the intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country’s progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts”.