Amnesty: 23 children killed amid Iran's 'all-out attack on child protesters'

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- At least 23 children have died due to Iran's bloody crackdown on widespread anti-regime protests, Amnesty International said in a damning report that details who the children were and how they were killed amid the demonstrations that began last month.

In the 19-page report published Thursday, the British-based human rights organization states the children, who are between the ages of 11 and 17, were killed during the first 10 days of what some have described as a popular uprising against the Islamic regime.

The organization accuses Iran of conducting an "all-out attack on child protesters."

"Iran's security forces have killed nearly two dozen children in an attempt to crush the spirit of resistance among the country's courageous youth," Heba Morayef, Amnesty International's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

The victims tallied by the report include 20 boys and three girls.

The majority of the boys were killed by live ammunition though two died after being shot with metal pellets at close range, it said, adding that the three girls and one boy died after being beaten by security forces.

The protests erupted last month after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, died while in police custody.

She was arrested by the country's so-called morality police on accusations of not complying with strict hijab laws on Sept. 13 while visiting Tehran with her family.

She died three days later. Credible reports state she was beaten and possibly tortured, which caused her to fall into a coma prior to her death.

As the protests spread throughout the country in response, the regime of Iran's spiritual leader Ali Khamenei have attempted to silence dissidents by force, while blaming the United States for encouraging the unrest.

Amnesty International says the children tallied represent only 16% of the 144 protesters killed whose names and details it has been able to record. All of the deaths occurred in September, and the organization said it is investigating reports of deaths that have occurred this month.

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said that as of Thursday at least 201 protesters have been killed. It also states that 23 children are among its tally.

The organization added in a statement that on top of the deaths, many school-age children have been arrested and sent to what the education ministry calls psychiatric centers where they are to be "corrected."

The United States, the United Nations and other democratic countries and organizations have repeatedly called on Iran to cease its crackdown and allow peaceful protests, but Morayef said the Iranian authorities have ignored those pleas.

"The price of this systematic impunity is being paid with human lives, including children's," Morayef said. "Member states engaging at the U.N. Human Rights Council should urgently hold a special session and adopt a resolution to establish an international independent investigative and accountability mechanism on Iran."