Iran’s Revolutionary Guards kill two Kurds in hiding after protests, rights groups say

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have killed two Kurdish activists in the west of the country who went into hiding following anti-government protests in January, two rights groups say.

Iranian media confirm the incident, which took place on Thursday, but say that the men were armed, had been instigators of “riots,” and were killed by security forces when they opened fire from their hideout in the western province of Kermanshah.

Brothers Meisam Visi and Mojtaba Visi, adherents of the Yarsan faith, had been living in hiding after the January protests, the Norway-based Hengaw rights group says.

The brothers were shot dead by Revolutionary Guards who surrounded their hideout early on Thursday in a village in the Dalahu district of the province and opened fire “without warning,” Hengaw adds.

The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network publishes a similar report, saying the pair had gone into hiding because of “fear of arrest.”

But Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency describes them as “two of the main instigators of the January riots in the Kermanshah region,” and says they had opened fire on security forces.

“The security forces, acting within their legal mandate and in self-defense, returned fire, resulting in the deaths of the two armed terrorists,” it adds.