Five Iranian cops killed in Tehran Sufi protest

LONDON: Five members of Iranian security forces were killed in Tehran on Monday night in clashes with protesters from a religious order, 300 of whom were arrested, the police said.

Members of the Gonabadi Dervishes, who follow the mystical Sufi strain of Islam, considered a threat by the theocratic establishment, clashed with riot police after gathering at a police station to demand the release of members of their sect.

Three riot police were killed when a bus was driven into their ranks, a volunteer Basij militiaman was run over by a car and another was stabbed, officials said. Some Sufis also surrounded the house of their 90-year-old leader, Nourali Tabandeh, in the same neighbourhood in northern Tehran, shouting they would not tolerate his possible arrest.

The protests come weeks after a wave of anti-government demonstrations in more than 80 towns that resulted in 25 deaths and thousands of arrests.