The governor of western Iranian province of Kurdistan has confirmed that three people were killed in the province during protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was taken into custody by the country's morality police.
Ismail Zareikosha said the security forces are not responsible for the deaths, instead blaming them on what he said were enemies of Iran, without providing any evidence.
The state news agency IRNA quoted Zareikosha as saying he considered the demonstrations protesting the death of Mehsa Amini "illegal" and threatened that government agents would "stand up and suppress it.”
Human rights groups said Amini was detained for breaking Iran's strict religious laws requiring Muslim women to wear a head scarf.
On September 20, protests triggered by Amini's death continued across the country for a sixth straight day.
Meanwhile, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a group that monitors Kurdish-inhabited areas of western Iran, on September 20 announced the death of Hajar Abbasi, a woman who was severely wounded by direct fire from security forces in Mahabad on September 18.
For many Iranians the death of Amini is further proof of the Islamic Republic's heavy-handed policing of dissent and the morality police's increasingly violent treatment of young women.