ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least 18 people have been killed in seven days of protests across Iran, a rights monitor said Saturday, adding that they are also investigating reports of six other deaths to verify their accuracy.

Workers and business owners in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar went on strike last week, protesting the alarming devaluation of the rial against the US dollar. The demonstrations soon spread across the country, prompting violent crackdowns from Iranian authorities.

“Of the 17 confirmed victims, at least nine were Lurs and seven were Kurds, including one from the Yarsan religious minority. One Persian resident was also killed in Hamedan,” the Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported, tallying the casualty count of the first week of the nationwide protests.

The rights monitor raised the toll to 18 on Sunday, after a protester was shot dead by government forces during demonstrations in Fars the night before.

The youngest confirmed death is 15-year-old Mustafa Falahi from Lorestan province, and the oldest is 42-year-old Ali Azizi Jaafarabadi from Kermanshah.

At least six other reported deaths are under investigation by Hengaw’s verification team. The watchdog is also probing the identities of two protesters killed in Qom, whose deaths were reported by state-affiliated media.

Additionally, hundreds have been arrested by government forces since the start of the protests.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the demands of protesters in the country are “completely fair,” though warning that rioters must “be put in their place.”

US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to intervene should Iran begin killing protesters, a practice he said is the government's “custom.”

Iran’s judiciary has warned demonstrators and ordered legal action against those accused of disrupting the market and public security, warning that they could face charges often punishable by death under the Islamic republic’s judicial system.