One Killed by Security Forces in Firuzabad; Officials Claim: 'It Was a Return Fire'

The Islamic Republic's police announced that investigative police teams in the province, in operational collaboration with law enforcement officers, killed a citizen 'after an hour of conflict and return fire.' Raham Bakhsh Habibi, the police chief of Fars province, on Monday, September 18, identified the deceased as the perpetrator of 'armed conflict and injuring three law enforcement officers.' The statements by the police chief confirmed reports circulating on social media in recent hours, which stated that on Sunday evening in 'Dehberam village' in Firuzabad county, during a 'clash' between government forces and the public, an individual fired at the officers. The Twitter account 'Mamlakateh,' which follows protest news, reported on the messaging platform 'X' that during this clash, 'a Basij member named Yasser Shojaian' was killed and 'three others were injured,' but the police chief of Fars province only confirmed the injury of 'three law enforcement officers.' According to this report, 'reinforcements from Shiraz' equipped with items including 'helicopters' were dispatched to address this conflict. In a report by the IRNA news agency quoting the police chief of Fars province, the citizen killed by government forces was described as a 'previously known troublemaker' who allegedly 'threatened truck drivers with murder.' Simultaneously, a video circulated on social media showing an individual identified as 'a Qashqai from Firuzabad,' holding a weapon, stating: 'I urge truck drivers to stop your trucks until the fate of the country is determined and these corrupt clerics leave the country, so we can finish off this Seyed Ali Zahak.' It is unclear to Voice of America whether the deceased citizen mentioned by the police official and the individual making this statement in the video are the same person. Concurrently, on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death, on Saturday, September 16, Fardin Jafari, a Kurdish citizen with a mental disability, was also shot by 'snipers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' near the Aichi cemetery in Saqqez. Pouria Golbaghian, Fardin Jafari's cousin, told Voice of America that the IRGC threatened his family not to publicize the matter, but Fardin's father has filed a complaint against the IRGC in the military prosecutor's office.