Rights group says at least 448 protesters killed in Iran, including 60 children

Iranian security forces have killed at least 448 people in a crackdown on protests that began in mid-September, over half in ethnic minority regions, a rights group says.

Of the 448 people confirmed to have been killed, 60 were children aged under 18, including nine girls, and 29 women, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group says.

It says 16 people were killed by security forces in the past week alone, of whom 12 were slain in Kurdish-populated areas where protests have been particularly intense.

The toll has also risen after the deaths of people killed in previous weeks were verified and included, it adds. The toll only includes citizens killed in the crackdown and not members of the security forces.

Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier said more than 300 people had been killed, the first time the authorities have acknowledged such a figure.