Two suspects killed in arrest operation after Iran shooting

Authorities say seven people were killed last month in the country's south-west

Members of a special IRGC force at a rally in Tehran on the last Friday of Ramadan. Reuters

Iranian authorities said on Wednesday that two suspects were killed and two more were arrested in connection with a shooting in which seven people died at a bazaar last month in the country's south-west.

Irna, Iran’s official state news agency, said the two suspects killed were among those responsible for the market shooting in the Iranian city of Izeh last month. The report said two others accused of being involved in the attack were arrested in the same operation, led by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the country's intelligence ministry.

Iranian authorities provided no further details about when the operation took place and no evidence that the four men were involved in the attack. News of the security operation was first announced by the IRGC in a statement published on Tuesday.

It is not clear clear what motivated the gun attack in Izeh, or if it is linked to the nationwide protests that have rocked the country since late September. Iranian authorities labelled the incident a terrorist attack but have not accused any particular group of being responsible for the shooting.

Iranian state TV has in the past said that two gunmen on motorbikes opened fire at Izeh’s bazaar on the evening of November 16. About the same time, protesters had gathered in different areas of the city, chanting anti-government slogans and throwing rocks at the police, it reported.

Nationwide demonstrations ignited across Iran in late September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who was being held by the country’s morality police. The protests have since evolved into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling clerics and an end to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

At least 506 people have been killed in the demonstrations during the government crackdown, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the protests since they began.