More than 200 children killed after latest crackdown of protests in Iran | News World

More than 200 children have been killed amid the brutal crackdown on protests across Iran.

The demonstrations first erupted in December over economic hardship before swelling into widespread protests calling for regime change.

Officials estimate that more than 5,000 people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said at least 216 children have been killed, while hundreds more children were detained and taken away from their families.

Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at CHRI described the killing of innocent children as enabling the ‘gravest of crimes to be committed with impunity’.

He added: ‘Hundreds of children are dead. Hundreds more are in detention and at grave risk of terrible abuses in state custody.

‘This is a human rights emergency.

‘The international community must urgently apply coordinated diplomatic and political pressure to demand the immediate release of all detained children and launch independent investigations to ensure accountability for their killings.’

The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations said the children’s dreams, aspiration and futures were ‘taken by bullets, deprivation and systemic violence’.

In a statement, the association said: ‘Their deaths are not isolated tragedies; they are the result of a deliberate policy that has rendered childhood, education, and life itself expendable.

‘After extinguishing their lives, the authorities tried to erase their memory: banning the mention of their names, carrying out secret burials, and denying the truth of their killing.’

Protests began on December 28 in Tehran amid the collapse of the rial, Iran’s currency, which spread across the country.

On January 8, authorities in Tehran shut down internet and phone access before gunshots by government forces echoed through the city as the mass demonstrations threatened to topple the regime.

In the 48 days since the start of the protests, 7,008 protesters have been killed, according to the latest figures from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

It reported that 219 children were killed and around 11,730 deaths remain under review.

The killing of hundreds of children comes just weeks after a 23-year-old fashion student was shot in the head at close range after joining protests on January 8.

A shopkeeper was on the brink of being executed after he was detained during mass protests last month.

Erfan Soltani, 26, faced the death penalty in Iran for his role in the anti-regime protests, but was released on bail.

This week, the US military shot down an Iranian drone after it ‘aggressively’ approached an American aircraft carrier.

A F-35 US fighter jet shot down the Iranian Shahed-139 drone as it was flying towards the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.

The latest drone strike comes amid US President Donald Trump’s mounting threats to Iran in a bid to negotiate with the country.

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran, including cyber-attacks and direct strikes by the US or Israel.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: US strikes second ‘drug boat’ in one week leaving 133 dead

MORE: Trump boasts about revoking major scientific ruling – why has he done it?

MORE: Expert has ‘never seen US winter like this’ as snow drought sparks warnings