Death toll from Iran unrest climbs to 50 as protests spread over Mahsa Amini's death

Tehran: At least 50 people have been killed in an Iranian security forces crackdown on protests that erupted over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by police, an Oslo-based NGO said Friday.

This is three times the official death count of 17, which includes five security personnel.

Protests flared in Iran for an eighth straight night Friday over the death of Amini, verified social media posts showed, hours after counter-demonstrations mobilized by authorities.

Footage spread on social media showed large crowds of protesters gathering in several neighborhoods of the capital Tehran after dark, just hours after the government-backed rallies dispersed.

Some were confronted by armed anti-riot police or militia.

Iran has imposed tough restrictions on the use of the internet in a bid to hamper protesters gathering and stop the flow of images of the backlash from reaching the outside world.

The United States announced Friday it was easing export restrictions on Iran to expand internet services, days after SpaceX owner Elon Musk said he would seek an exemption from sanctions to offer his company's Starlink satellite service in the Islamic republic.

The new measures will "help counter the Iranian government's efforts to surveil and censor its citizens," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"It is clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people," he added.

On Friday, thousands took to the streets in support of the hijab at government-backed counter rallies in Tehran and other cities.

Amini died on September 16, three days after she was hospitalised following her arrest by the 'morality police', the unit responsible for enforcing the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Activists said she suffered a blow to the head in custody but this has been disputed by the Iranian authorities, who have opened an investigation and there has not been any video corroboration of the charge.

After she was pronounced dead, angry protests flared and spread to major cities, including Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz and Tabriz as well as her native Kurdistan province.

In the latest violence, demonstrators clashed with security forces on Friday evening in the city of Bokan in West Azerbaijan province, said Hengaw, a second Oslo-based rights group.

The report by this Kurdish organization could not be independently verified.

Some women demonstrators have defiantly taken off their hijabs and burned them in bonfires or symbolically cut their hair before cheering crowds, video footage spread virally on social media has shown.

"The government has responded with live ammunition, pellet guns and tear gas, according to videos shared on social media that have also shown protesters bleeding profusely," the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said.

Internet access has been restricted in what web monitor NetBlocks has called a "curfew-style pattern of disruptions".