The State Department condemning on Wednesday, the use of violence to crush ongoing protests in Iran confirmed independent information that the regime dispatched the automatic weapons-armed police to disperse the opposition.

The Iranian people have a right to voice their frustrations and hold their government accountable, but we have seen disturbing reports that security forces fired on protesters, resulting in multiple deaths, State Department spokesman Mr. Ned Price said in a statement. “We condemn the use of violence against peaceful protestors.”

The statement came after independent reports that security forces had fired on protesters engaged in a demonstration last week over severe water shortages in southwest Khuzestan province.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on July 22 noting reports of three protesters being killed and asserting that “Iranian authorities appear to have used excessive force against demonstrators in southwestern Iran protesting lack of access to water.”

Iranian authorities have sharply denied the reports, but an umbrella group of Iranian exile dissident groups charged the protests are more extensive and violent than the regime has admitted.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, citing its sources inside the country, claimed protests had broken out in the capital and dozens of Iranian cities, with at least 12 demonstrators killed by police and scores of arrests in Khuzestan and elsewhere.