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At least four people were killed in western Iran on Saturday in clashes between protesters and security forces, two rights groups said, accusing Revolutionary Guards of opening fire on demonstrators.Protests carried on in several cities nationwide throughout Saturday, the seventh day of a movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living in the Islamic republic. The protests are the most significant in Iran since a 2022-2023 movement that authorities quelled with a crackdown that left hundreds dead and thousands arrested, according to activists.The Norway-based Hengaw rights group said that Revolutionary Guards used live fire against protesters in the Malekshahi district of the western Ilam province, killing four members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.The group said it was checking reports that two other people had been killed, while it said dozens more were wounded.The Iran Human Rights NGO, also based in Norway, said at least four people were killed and 30 wounded after “security forces attacked the protests” in Malekshahi.It posted footage of what appeared to be bloodied corpses on the ground. It was not possible to immediately verify the footage or the toll.In Iran, media evoked the clashes with the Mehr news agency saying a Revolutionary Guard was killed after “rioters” attempted to enter a police station.The protests have affected, to varying degrees, at least 30 different cities, mostly medium-sized, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements and media reports. At least 12 people have been killed since Wednesday in clashes, including members of the security forces, according to a toll based on official reports.The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency monitor said that over the past seven days, protests have been recorded at least 174 locations in 60 cities across 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces. During this period, at least 582 individuals were arrested, and at least 15 protesters have been killed, it said.It was not immediately possible to verify the figures.The protests began last week following a shutdown by merchants in the Tehran bazaar, an influential economic hub, and spread to other regions as well as universities.The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato said Friday that “reports indicate growing confrontation between protesters and security forces” and warned the violent response witnessed during the 2022-2023 movement “must not be repeated”.

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday retook the resource-rich Yemeni province of Hadramawt, Yemen’s presidency said, after confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.The Saudis and Emiratis have long supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government, and a December offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt had angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.But Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, said in a statement that Saudi-backed National Shield forces achieved “record success” in “retaking all military and security positions in the province” bordering Saudi Arabia in the operation launched Friday.Two government military officials also told AFP earlier that neighbouring Mahra province and its armed forces, which had also fallen in with the STC during its recent advance, had switched their loyalty to Saudi-backed forces without any resistance.One of the two officials said the Mahra forces had “lowered the separatist flag and raised the Yemeni flag”.The Saudi-led coalition has launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the STC.On Friday, a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.On Saturday, a military official with the STC told AFP Saudi warplanes had carried out “intense” air strikes on another of the group’s camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.The official said the strikes resulted in fatalities, without giving a number of those killed.- ‘Retreat of forces’ -Footage aired by the Aden Independent Channel showed the moment one strike hit the STC forces, igniting a massive orange fireball and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in Mukalla early Saturday. While residents described a security breakdown there accompanied by looting, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistance.Hani Yousef, a Mukalla resident, said he “saw retreating forces using their military vehicles to transport motorbikes and household items, including refrigerators and washing machines”.Alimi, in his statement, urged “strict measures to secure state institutions and public facilities, and to protect public and private property”.Earlier in the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official announced pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.The STC military official said “there has been a retreat of our forces,” but that at the time the UAE-backed forces were still trying to resist the advance.”We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added.Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes. Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.  – Call for dialogue -In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for a “conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.Alimi called on the STC to “commit to the path of dialogue and to roll back its unilateral measures in the various governorates”.Later the secessionist council said in a statement it “affirms its welcome… for this dialogue and for any dialogue addressing the cause of the people of the South”.Earlier Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”. In separate statements, the Gulf states of Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain voiced their support for dialogue in Riyadh. Egypt’s foreign ministry also urged dialogue and voiced its support for the “unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Republic of Yemen”. The STC has pushed to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north. But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday acknowledged the economic demands of protesters in Iran, where demonstrations have spread to more than two dozen cities, even as he warned there would be no quarter for “rioters”.The protests began on Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.Iranian media have reported localised violence and vandalism in the west of the country in recent days.”During clashes in Malekshahi, Latif Karimi, a member of the IRGC, was killed while defending the country’s security,” Mehr news agency said.Malekshahi is a county of about 20,000 residents with a large Kurdish population, where “rioters attempted to enter a police station”, according to separate news agency Fars, which added that “two assailants were killed”.Mehr earlier reported a member of the Basij paramilitary force was also killed during another protest in western Iran after being “stabbed and shot” by “armed rioters”.The protests have affected, to varying degrees, at least 30 different cities, mostly medium-sized, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements and media reports. At least 12 people have been killed since Wednesday in clashes, including members of the security forces, according to a toll based on official reports.Speaking to worshippers gathered in Tehran for a Shiite holiday, Khamenei said the protesters’ economic demands in the sanctions-battered country were “just”.”The shopkeepers have protested against this situation and that is completely fair,” he added.But Khamenei nonetheless warned that while “authorities must have dialogue with protesters, it is useless to have dialogue with rioters. Those must be put in their place.”The first deaths were reported on Thursday as demonstrators clashed with authorities.The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man was killed on Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”.A 17-year-old boy, connected to the Qom protests and wounded by gunfire, also died from his injuries, Tasnim added.However, local media do not necessarily report on every incident, and state media have downplayed coverage of protests, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.- Political demands -The Fars news agency reported gatherings on Friday in several working-class neighbourhoods of Tehran, which is home to around 10 million people.In Darehshahr, in the country’s west, around 300 people blocked streets, threw Molotov cocktails and “brandished Kalashnikovs” on Friday, according to Fars.The movement kicked off on Sunday when shopkeepers went on strike in Tehran to protest economic conditions, and spread after university students elsewhere in the country took up the cause.In recent days, the protests have taken on a more overtly political bent.In Karaj, on the outskirts of the capital, “a few people burned the Iranian flag, shouting ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘This isn’t the last battle, Pahlavi is coming back!'” Fars reported, adding that others in the crowd objected to the slogans.The pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, when it was toppled by the Islamic revolution.Since the protests began, authorities have adopted a conciliatory tone when it comes to economic demands, while warning that destabilisation and chaos will not be tolerated.Though widespread, the demonstrations are smaller than the ones that broke out in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.Iran was also gripped by nationwide protests that began in late 2019 over a rise in fuel prices, eventually leading to calls to topple the country’s clerical rulers.

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But a recent offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.In a statement, the military of the Saudi-aligned government announced that “all military and civilian facilities” in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, had “been secured” by Riyadh-backed forces.Later two government military officials told AFP neighbouring Mahra province and its armed forces, which had also fallen in with the STC during its December advance, had switched their loyalty to Saudi-backed forces without any resistance.One of the two officials said the Mahra forces had “lowered the separatist flag and raised the Yemeni flag”.The Saudi-led coalition has launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the STC.On Friday, a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.On Saturday, a military official with the STC told AFP Saudi warplanes had carried out “intense” air strikes on another of the group’s camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.- ‘Retreat of forces’ -The official said the strike had resulted in fatalities, without giving a number of those killed.Footage aired by the Aden Independent Channel showed the moment one strike hit the STC forces, igniting a massive orange fireball and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in Mukalla early Saturday. While residents described a security breakdown there accompanied by looting, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistance.Hani Yousef, a Mukalla resident, said he “saw retreating forces using their military vehicles to transport motorbikes and household items, including refrigerators and washing machines”.In the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.”We are working to secure them,” the military official said. The STC military official said: “There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun.” “We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added.Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes. Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.  – Call for dialogue -In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”. In separate statements, the Gulf states of Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain voiced their support for dialogue in Riyadh. Egypt’s foreign ministry also urged dialogue and voiced its support for the “unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Republic of Yemen”. The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north. But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

When paramilitary fighters closed in on the Sudanese border town and oil field of Heglig, paraplegic Dowa Hamed could only cling to her husband’s back as they fled, “like a child”, she told AFP.Now, the 25-year-old mother of five — paralysed from the waist down — lies shell-shocked on a cot in the Abu al-Naga displacement camp, a dusty transit centre just outside the eastern city of Gedaref, nearly 800 kilometres (500 miles) from home.But her family’s actual journey was much longer, crossing the South Sudan border twice and passing from one group of fighters to another, as they ran for their lives with their children in tow alongside hundreds of others.”We fled with nothing,” Hamed told AFP. “Only the clothes on our backs.”Hamed and her family are among tens of thousands of people recently uprooted by fighting in southern Kordofan — the latest front in the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted in April 2023.Since capturing the army’s last stronghold in Darfur in October, the RSF and their allies have pushed deeper into neighbouring Kordofan, an oil-rich agricultural region divided into three states: West, North and South.In recent weeks, the paramilitary group has consolidated control over West Kordofan, seized Heglig — home to Sudan’s largest oil field — and tightened its siege on Kadugli and Dilling in South Kordofan, where hundreds of thousands now face mass starvation.- ‘Chased to the border’ -On the night of December 7, the inhabitants of Heglig — many of them the families of oil technicians, engineers and soldiers stationed at the field — got word an attack would happen at dawn.”We ran on foot, barefoot, without proper clothes,” said Hiyam al-Haj, 29, a mother of 10 who says she had to leave her mother and six siblings behind as she ran around 30 kilometres to the border.”The RSF chased us to the border. The South Sudan army told them we were in their country and they would not hand us over,” she told AFP.They were sheltered in South Sudan’s Unity State, but barely fed.”Those who had money could feed their children,” al-Haj said. “Those who didn’t went hungry.”They spent nearly four weeks on the move, trekking long distances on foot and spending nights out in the open, sleeping on the bare ground.”We were hungry,” she said. “But we didn’t feel the hunger, all we cared about was our safety.”Eventually, authorities in South Sudan put them in large trucks that carried them back across the border to army-controlled territory where they could head east, away from the front lines.Hamed, who was paralysed during childbirth, said that “during the truck rides, my body ached with every movement”. But not everyone made it to Gedaref.Between the canvas tents of the Abu al-Naga camp, 14-year-old Sarah is struggling to take care of her little brother, alone.In South Sudan, their parents had put them on one of the trucks, “then they said the truck was full and promised they would get on the next one”.But weeks on, the siblings have received no word as to where their mother and father might be.- Camps under pressure -Inside the tents, children and mothers sleep on the ground, huddled together for warmth, while outside children dart across the cracked soil, dust clinging to their bare feet.According to camp director Ali Yehia Ahmed, 240 families, or around 1,200 people, are now taking refuge at Abu al-Naga.”The camp’s space is very small,” Ahmed told AFP, adding that food was in increasingly short supply.Food is handed out from a single distribution point, forcing families to wait for limited rations.Some women haul water from a single well, pouring it into plastic buckets to cook, wash and clean with, while others wait in a long line outside a makeshift health clinic, little more than a large canvas tent.Asia Abdelrahman Hussein, Gedaref state’s minister of social welfare and development, said shelter was one of the most urgent needs, especially during the winter months.”The shelters are not enough. We need support from other organisations to provide safe housing and adequate shelter,” she told AFP.In one of the tents, Sawsan Othman Moussa, 27, told AFP how she had been forced to flee three times since fighting broke out in Dilling.Now, though she might be safe, “every tent is cramped, medicine is scarce, and during cold nights, we suffer”.

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But a recent offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.In a statement, the military of the Saudi-aligned government announced that “all military and civilian facilities” in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, had “been secured” by Riyadh-backed forces.Earlier two government military officials told AFP they had taken control of Mukalla’s principal military base. The Saudi-led coalition has launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the STC.On Friday, a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.On Saturday, a military official with the STC told AFP Saudi warplanes had carried out “intense” air strikes on another of the group’s camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.The official said the strike had resulted in fatalities, without giving a number of those killed.Footage aired by the Aden Independent Channel showed the moment one strike hit the STC forces, igniting a massive orange fireball and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. – ‘Retreat of forces’ -According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in Mukalla early Saturday. While residents described a security breakdown there accompanied by looting, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistance. Hani Yousef, a Mukalla resident, said he “saw retreating forces using their military vehicles to transport motorbikes and household items, including refrigerators and washing machines”.In the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.”We are working to secure them,” the military official said. The STC military official said: “There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun.” “We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added.Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes. – Call for dialogue -Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.  In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”. The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north. But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have triggered a deep rift between the two Gulf allies.The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council’s recent offensive to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.Following repeated warnings and air strikes, including on an alleged Emirati weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Friday, including on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt that left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.Two military officials with the Saudi-aligned government told AFP on Saturday morning that Riyadh-backed forces had taken control of the principal military base in the Yemeni city of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt.According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in the city early Saturday and while residents described a security breakdown there, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistence.  In the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.”We are working to secure them,” the military official said. A STC military official said: “There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun.” “We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added. – Call for dialogue -Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes early on Saturday. Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.  In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”. The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north. But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

A member of an Iranian paramilitary force was killed during a demonstration in the country’s west, the Mehr news agency reported on Saturday, the seventh day of protests that have spread to more than two dozen cities.The protests began on Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.The first deaths were reported as demonstrators clashed with authorities on Thursday, with at least eight people killed so far, including members of the security services, according to official figures.”Ali Azizi, a member of the Basij, was martyred after being stabbed and shot in the city of Harsin during a gathering of armed rioters,” Mehr said, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military that oversees the volunteer Basij force.The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man killed Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”.The protests have mostly been concentrated in mid-sized cities in Iran’s west and southwest, where clashes and vandalism have been reported.At least 25 cities have seen protest gatherings of varying sizes, according to an AFP tally based on local media.However, local media do not necessarily report on every incident, and state media have downplayed coverage of protests, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.- Political demands -The Fars news agency reported gatherings on Friday in several working-class neighbourhoods of Tehran, which is home to around 10 million people.But on Saturday, a public holiday, the atmosphere in the capital appeared quiet, with streets mostly empty as the skies spat rain and snow.In Darehshahr, in the west, around 300 people blocked streets, threw molotov cocktails and “brandished Kalashnikovs” on Friday, according to Fars.The movement kicked off on Sunday when shopkeepers went on strike in Tehran to protest economic conditions, and spread after university students elsewhere in the country took up the cause.In recent days, the protests have taken on a more overtly political bent.In Karaj, on the outskirts of the capital, “a few people burned the Iranian flag, shouting ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘This isn’t the last battle, Pahlavi is coming back!'” Fars reported, adding that others in the crowd objected to the slogans.The pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, when it was toppled by the Islamic revolution.Since the protests began, authorities have adopted a conciliatory tone when it comes to economic demands, while warning that destabilisation and chaos will not be tolerated.Though widespread, the demonstrations are smaller than the ones that broke out in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.Iran was also gripped by nationwide protests that began in late 2019 over a rise in fuel prices, eventually leading to calls to topple the country’s clerical rulers.