TEHRAN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian lawmaker said on Monday more than 3,700 people were injured during the recent "riots" in the country, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Ebrahim Azizi made the remarks at a press conference in Tehran, saying the figure was not fixed and could change.
The lawmaker added that more than 2,221 vehicles and pieces of equipment belonging to Iran's police and the voluntary Basij force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps were damaged during the unrest, noting that more than 250 schools, 300 mosques, and 90 seminaries also sustained damage.
He said a number of the security and military forces as well as civilians were killed in the incidents, but did not provide the death toll.
Meanwhile, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Monday that the riots in the country on Jan. 8 and 9 were a "terrorist war" aimed at achieving an objective similar to what took place in the pagers' explosion operation in Lebanon. He referred to an Israeli operation conducted in September 2024, in which thousands of explosive-laden pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies were detonated across Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah members.
Protests erupted since late December in several Iranian cities over the sharp depreciation of the rial. The Iranian government has stated its willingness to address economic grievances but has also warned against violence, vandalism, and unrest.
Initially held peacefully, the protests gradually became violent, leading to casualties and damage to public property, mosques, government buildings, and banks, especially on Jan. 8 and 9, for which Tehran has blamed the United States and Israel. Enditem
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