KERMAN, IRAN – In a horrifying turn of events, a 30-year-old man in southeast Iran turned a family disagreement into a bloodbath, ending the lives of 12 of his relatives on Saturday. This incident is one of the most devastating shootings in the country in recent times.
The tragic episode unfolded in a rural part of the Kerman province. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, targeted his father, brother, and other relatives in the heat of a family argument.
The sorrowful funeral ceremony in Kerman bore silent testimony to the brutal aftermath of the violence. The semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the man used a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a weapon not typically found among Iranian civilians.
Gun violence is not a common occurrence in Iran, making this incident particularly shocking. The country’s laws allow only hunting rifles, which are widespread in rural areas. This episode, therefore, stands as a grim outlier and represents one of the highest death tolls from gun violence in Iran.
Iran has a history of such incidents, albeit less severe. In 2022, an employee dismissed from a state-owned financial conglomerate went on a shooting spree at his former workplace, killing three and wounding five before ending his own life in the country’s west. In 2016, a 26-year-old man shot 10 of his relatives in a rural area in the south of Iran.
The country has been witnessing a rise in violence in recent years, coinciding with a deteriorating economic situation. Iran is battling soaring inflation and increasing unemployment, conditions worsened by stringent US sanctions.