13 killed as anti-govt protests spread throughout Iran

A policeman in Iran was killed after an attacker wielding a hunting rifle shot him during a demonstration in Iran, the latest death in the most widespread anti-government protests inside the rogue nation in years, local media reported Monday.

Three other officers were also wounded in the shooting in Najafabad, a city roughly 200 miles south of Tehran, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency. The policeman's death raises the death toll to at least 13, The Associated Press reported.

The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, first broke out Thursday in Mashhad over economic issues and have expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hundreds of people have been arrested.

In a separate string of attacks earlier Monday, armed protesters tried to overrun military and police bases, sparking violence that killed at least 10 people.

State TV said killed six people were killed in the western town of Tuyserkan, 185 miles southwest of Tehran, and three in the town of Shahinshahr, 195 miles south of Tehran. It did not say where the 10th person was killed.

Iranian state television aired footage of a ransacked private bank, broken windows, overturned cars and a firetruck that appeared to have been set ablaze.

The news came after an Iranian lawmaker said two additional protesters were killed and others wounded during a demonstration in the southwest.

A Monday report by the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted Hedayatollah Khademi, a representative for the town of Izeh, as saying the deaths happened there Sunday night.

He said the cause of death wasn't immediately known. Many in Izeh, some 280 miles southwest of Tehran, have hunting rifles in their homes.

On Sunday, Iran blocked access to Instagram and the popular messaging app Telegram used by activists to organize.

President Hassan Rouhani acknowledged the public's anger over the Islamic Republic's flagging economy, though he and others warned that the government wouldn't hesitate to crack down on those it considers lawbreakers.

That was echoed Monday by judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, who urged authorities to confront rioters, state TV reported. "I demand all prosecutors across the country to get involved and the approach should be strong," he said.