Sawt Falasteen - Protest-hit Iran vows to 'punish' those behind shrine massacre

In the latest violence, a rights group said, security forces killed a Kurdish man when protesters massed around government buildings in western Iran, a flashpoint area in almost six weeks of unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

As thousands mourned 22-year-old Amini on Wednesday, Iran was also rocked by an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group in which, state media said, a gunman killed at least 15 people at a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz.

Ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the two tragedies when he declared that "the intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country's progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts".

Raisi has vowed "a severe response" over the mass killing at the Shiite Muslim Shah Cheragh mausoleum following evening prayers.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for united efforts against the "plot" by Iran's enemies.

"The perpetrator or perpetrators of this saddening crime will certainly be punished," he said in a statement on his website.

The Islamic republic has been gripped by its biggest protests in almost three years since Amini died on September 16, three days after her Tehran arrest by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the country's dress code for women.

The latest protests in the west follow a massive ceremony Wednesday marking 40 days since Amini's death, held in her hometown of Saqez, Kurdistan province.

Iran's ISNA news agency said nearly 10,000 people had gathered there, but many thousands more were seen making their way in cars, on motorbikes and on foot along a highway, through fields and even across a river, in videos widely shared online.

- 'The army supports us' -

The protests sparked by Amini's death have been led by young women who have burned their headscarves and confronted security forces.

Despite heightened security measures, columns of mourners had poured into Amini's hometown of Saqez on Wednesday, paying tribute at her grave at the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period.

In another western city, Mahabad, security forces Thursday shot dead a Kurdish man, said the Hengaw human rights group, adding that protesters returning from the funeral of another demonstrator, had surrounded government buildings.

"We should not mourn for our youth, we should avenge them," the protesters chanted, according to the Norway-based organisation that monitors violations in Kurdish-populated areas.

On Wednesday protesters shouted "the army supports us", and people sought refuge in a barracks, Hengaw said.

It added that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had "disarmed the army forces", according to witnesses, but did not elaborate.

Mourners on Wednesday chanted at the Aichi cemetery outside Saqez, before many were seen heading to the governor's office in the city centre, where Iranian media outlets said some were poised to attack an army base.

"Security forces have shot tear gas and opened fire on people in Zindan square, Saqez city," Hengaw said, without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded.

After nightfall, blasts were heard as security forces fired on protesters in Marivan, Kurdistan province, in a video published by the Norway-based organisation.

"Death to the dictator," chanted protesters in the nearby city of Bukan where bonfires burned in the streets, the rights group said.

Protesters also surrounded a base of the Basij militia in Sanandaj, Kurdistan, starting fires and driving security forces back, and there were similar scenes in Ilam city, near the border with Iraq.

- 'Bloody shows' -

Some activists behind the daily protests over Amini's death, which have evolved into a broader campaign to end the Islamic republic founded in 1979, have raised suspicions over the timing of the Shiraz attack.

"For its survival, for distracting the protesters, for justifying killings and crackdowns, the Islamic republic always puts on such bloody shows," one of them, Atena Daemi, tweeted.

"The people have been fighting for 40 days non-stop to end such crimes."

Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights says the security forces' crackdown on the Amini protests has cost the lives of at least 141 demonstrators, including at least 29 children.

Amnesty International says the "unrelenting brutal crackdown" has killed at least 23 children.

The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on more than a dozen Iranian officials over the bloody response to the protests.

The White House said it was "concerned that Moscow may be advising Iran on best practices to manage protests, drawing on... extensive experience in suppressing" opponents.

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N.Awad--SF-PST