A volunteer member of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed in a western province during widening demonstrations sparked by the Islamic Republic's ailing economy, authorities said Thursday, marking the first fatality among security forces during the protests.
The death Wednesday night of the 21-year-old volunteer in the Guard's Basij force may mark the start of a heavier-handed response by Iran's theocracy over the demonstrations, which have slowed in the capital, Tehran, but expanded to other provinces.
