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Protesters set fire to Khomeini’s house

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Protesters in Iran have set fire to the ancestral home of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Images posted on social media show part of the structure in the city of Khomein being set ablaze, BBC reported.

News agencies have verified the videos’ location, but regional authorities denied there had been an arson attack.

Ayatollah Khomeini is said to have been born in the house, which is now a museum that commemorates his life.

Khomeini was the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979, which deposed the country’s pro-Western leader, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and ushered in the theocratic state that still exists today.

He served as the first supreme leader of Iran until his death in 1989, which is still marked by a day of mourning each year, the BBC reported.

Social media videos from Khomein show dozens of people cheering as the fire breaks out. An activist network said the footage was taken on Thursday evening.

The fire at his ancestral house is one of the latest incidents in a wave of nationwide demonstrations directed at his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his government.

The protests against Iran’s clerical establishment erupted two months ago after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict hijab rules.

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