Aid Warehouses Torched by Terrorists During January Riots
TEHRAN -- The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society said Saturday that relief warehouses in the southwestern city of Izeh were set ablaze by terrorists during January riots, dismissing claims that the unrest was driven by hunger because the burned facilities were stocked with food, tents, blankets and carpets.
Pirhussein Kolivand, president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, said the arson in Izeh, Khuzestan province, was carried out by foreign-backed terrorist elements who deliberately destroyed humanitarian supplies rather than seizing them.
“In the January riots in Izeh, Khuzestan, they set fire to the Red Crescent warehouses,” Kolivand said in comments published by Hamshahri Online.
“These riots were not about hunger, because our burned warehouses were full of food packages, tents, blankets and moquettes.”
He added: “I myself saw on Karim Khan Street in Tehran that some rioters had scythes and guns in their hands.”
The remarks reinforce the official Iranian position that the January disturbances were not legitimate economic protests but foreign-orchestrated acts of terrorism.
Iranian authorities have consistently described the unrest as the work of “foreign-linked terrorist leaders” and “armed agents” tasked by hostile intelligence agencies with sabotage, arson and the assassination of elites.
In a separate announcement on Saturday, the Intelligence Department of Ilam province said its operatives had identified and arrested 11 “mercenaries of the American-Zionist enemy” in the town of Malekshahi, organized in three separate teams.
The statement said the detainees had during the January 2026 coup engaged in “savage and destructive acts,” including shooting at security forces and a police headquarters, directing rioters, destroying government and public facilities, and displaying firearms and bladed weapons. It said quantities of weapons were seized.
According to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the rioters in Khuzestan were instructed by foreign agencies to target vital infrastructure
including water, electricity, gas and oil pipelines, and to attack military and police facilities.
The IRGC said it arrested ringleaders and seized lethal weapons during operations in the province.
The Red Crescent’s own account of the Izeh attack describes armed terrorists breaking into the facility and burning the largest emergency shelter and food warehouse, destroying 100 percent of the organization’s relief stockpile along with an ambulance and relief vehicles.
A local Red Crescent official said the attack occurred while relief teams were deployed assessing flood damage and searching for a missing person, and that attackers assaulted staff and stole CCTV equipment.
Iranian officials have said more than 3,000 individuals were detained nationwide in connection with the terrorist riots.
The January events in Khuzestan were part of a foreign-backed hybrid warfare against the Islamic Republic.
Provincial officials have described the riots as “the handiwork of hypocrites and terrorist groups like Daesh,” and have praised residents for cooperating with security forces to identify and apprehend armed mercenaries.