Gunmen kill Iranian militia commander: state media

Members of Iran’s paramilitary Basij militia, holding national flags, parade in front of the former US embassy in Tehran to mark the national Basij week. (File/AFP)

TEHRAN: A commander of Iran’s Basij militia was shot dead by unidentified assailants Wednesday in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, state news agency IRNA reported.
Abdolhossein Mojadami was killed by “two motorcyclists armed with a Kalashnikov and shotgun” outside his home in Darkhovin, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of provincial capital Ahvaz, Fars news agency said.
Fars, which is close to ultraconservatives, said Mojadami was a member of the Basij, a militia loyal to Iran’s establishment.
It published a picture of him in a uniform of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with the rank of captain.
IRNA said Mojadami was among the “volunteers” who had been involved in the fight against Daesh in Syria or Iraq.
It said there was no claim of responsibility for the “terrorist act” that killed him.
One of Iran’s poorest oil-producing provinces, Khuzestan was one of the main centers of violent protests that swept across around 100 cities and towns in mid-November in response to fuel price hikes.
The London-based rights group Amnesty International said more than 300 people were killed in a crackdown on the unrest, including about 40 in Khuzestan.
Iran has rejected as “utter lies” unofficial death tolls given abroad.