DUBAI—Iran’s supreme leader on Monday gave his full backing to security forces confronting protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, comments that could herald a harsher crackdown to quell unrest more than two weeks since she died.
In his first remarks addressing the 22-year-old’s death after her arrest by morality police over “inappropriate attire,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Amini’s death “deeply broke my heart” and called it a “bitter incident” provoked by Iran’s enemies.
