At least 92 people have been killed as Iran has cracked down on women-led protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police, the group Iran Human Rights said Sunday, according to the AFP news agency.
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian, was pronounced dead on September 16 after she was detained for allegedly breaching rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.
Her death sparked Iran's biggest wave of popular unrest in almost three years.
According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights, 41 people died in clashes Friday in Iran's far southeast, an area bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those protests were sparked by accusations a police chief in the region had raped a teenage girl of the Baluch Sunni minority, it said.
Clashes between protesters and security forces in Iran have rocked cities nationwide for 16 nights in a row after they first flared in western regions home to Amini and Iran's Kurdish minority.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam urged the international community to take urgent steps against the Islamic republic to stop the killing of Iranian protesters, saying they amount to "crimes against humanity".
At least 92 protesters in the Mahsa Amini rallies have been killed so far, said IHR, which has been working to assess the death toll despite internet outages and blocks on WhatsApp, Instagram and other online services.
Iran has accused outside forces of stoking the nationwide protests, especially the United States and Washington's allies.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi last week condemned the "chaos" sparked by the wave of women-led protests over Amini’s death.
"Those who took part in the riots must be dealt with decisively, this is the demand of the people," said Raisi, adding, "People's safety is the red line of the Islamic Republic of Iran and no one is allowed to break the law and cause chaos.”
"The enemy has targeted national unity and wants to pit people against each other," said Raisi, who accused the United States of stoking the unrest.
On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah commented on the death of Amini, saying it was a "vague incident" that was being exploited against Tehran.