At least 300 people killed in Mahsa Amini protests in Iran

“At least 304 people, including 41 children and 24 women, have been killed in the ongoing nationwide protests,” the Oslo-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said.

Security forces killed at least 16 people with live bullets during protests in the city of Khash in Sistan-Baluchestan province on Friday, the group said.

With 118 people killed, Sistan-Baluchestan has been the region with the highest number of deaths since the unrest erupted mid-September, IHR said.

Tehran has blamed the violence in Sistan-Baluchestan on armed militants. Iran’s military has in the past clashed with Sunni militants in Sistan-Baluchestan, which is mostly populated by Sunni ethnic Baluchis, a minority in predominantly Shia Iran.

Baluchi activists have long complained of ethnic and religious discrimination and accuse the regime of deliberately neglecting their region, one of Iran’s poorest according to official figures.

Protests sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Amini have rocked Iran since September 16. Demonstrators have been chanting against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and calling for regime change.