The United States has imposed sanctions after citing Iran's morality police as responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini.
Ms Amini, 22, died after being arrested by Islamic Republic's morality police for wearing 'unsuitable attire' - sparking a wave of protests, with at least a dozen people believed to have died killed as the deadly civil unrest continues across the republic.
The protests have been most intense in the Kurdish region, where the authorities have previously put down unrest by the Kurdish minority numbering eight million to 10 million.
The morality police detained Ms Amini - a Kurdish woman - last week, saying she did not properly cover her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab, which is mandatory for Iranian women.
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Ms Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later. Police say she died of a heart attack and deny she was mistreated.
"Mahsa Amini was a courageous woman whose death in morality police custody was yet another act of brutality by the Iranian
regime's security forces against its own people," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement on Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury Department also accused the morality police of violating the rights of peaceful protesters and said it had imposed sanctions on seven senior Iranian military and security officials, including the chief of the Iranian army's ground forces.
"The Iranian government needs to end its systemic persecution of women and allow peaceful protest," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a separate statement.
Access to social media is tightly restricted in Iran with internet blockage observatory NetBlocks reported "near-total disruption to internet connectivity in Sanandaj" - the provincial capital of the Kurdish region - on Monday, according to its Twitter account.
The senior officials designated included the morality police's head, Mohammad Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi; the commander of the Iranian army's ground forces, Kiyumars Heidari; and Esmail Khatib, Iran's minister of intelligence, the Treasury confirmed in a press release.
It identified the others as Haj Ahmad Mirzaei, head of the morality police's Tehran division during Amini's detention and death; Salar Abnoush, deputy commander of Iran's hardline Basij militia; and Qasem Rezaei and Manouchehr Amanollahi of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces, which will deny them access of their properties and bank accounts held in the US.
Videos on social media show demonstrations in Tehran and spreading to cities such as Rasht, Mashhad and Isfahan.
