Further unrest in Kurdish western Iran kills two

Reuters:

Two people have been killed, eight injured and 145 arrested in unrest among the Kurds of western Iran, Iran's Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The deaths in the town of Saqqez followed rioting and a gun battle elsewhere in Kurdish-dominated territories. READ MORE

The Interior Ministry Web site named the dead men in Saqqez as Mohammad Shariati, a 55-year-old retired teacher, and 18-year-old Farzad Mohammadi.

It quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that police had denied firing their pistols, but investigators were looking into the type of shots fired to work out what had happened.

"Public and state-owned buildings, including banks, were damaged," the official said.

The Sharq daily quoted deputy provincial governor Alireza Jamshidi as saying 100 of those arrested had been released.

Kurds rioted in the town of Mahabad last month. Shortly afterwards, three Iranian policemen were killed in a gun battle with Kurdish separatists.

Iranian officials deny the rash of unrest on the western borders is ethnically motivated, but Kurdish leaders disagree, saying Tehran's discrimination towards their people was fomenting discontent.

A U.N. report last month suggested Tehran was discriminating against its religious and ethnic minorities in the allocation of basic amenities.