Iran cuts off mobile phone network amid calls for protests over killed demonstrators

Iranian authorities cut off internet services to several politically sensitive parts of the country ahead of calls for renewed protests against the regime on Thursday.

An unnamed source cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency said mobile internet service had been shutdown on Wednesday in Alborz province adjacent to the capital Tehran, the central province of Fars which includes the city of Shiraz, as well as the ethnically volatile provinces of Kordestan to the west and Zanjan to the east.

The shutdown was confirmed on social media by Iranians who raised fears the move was intended to shut the country off from the world ahead of a violent crackdown like those last month that left hundreds dead.