Iran arrests ‘perpetrators’ of last week’s protests

Iranian police said yesterday they had arrested people behind protests that broke out last week in the southwest of the country, state news agency IRNA reported.

"All the perpetrators of an illegal and norm-breaking gathering in Behbahan (city) were identified and arrested," Khuzestan province's police chief Heydar Abbas Zadeh was quoted as saying.

He did not say how many people were detained or identify them.

The protests ocurred on Thursday "with a limited number of Behbahan residents gathering and shouting norm-breaking chants," he said, a term usually used by Iranian authorities to refer to anti-system slogans.