2005 Ahvaz unrest
2005 Ahvaz unrest or 15 April Ahvaz Protests were violent riots, initiated by Iranian Arabs in the city of Ahvaz in southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan. The unrest erupted on 15 April 2005, and lasted for 4 days. Initially, the Iranian Interior Ministry stated that only one person had been killed, however an official at a hospital in Ahvaz said that between 15 and 20 mortal casualties. Government officials blamed the unrest on Britain, whose troops based just across the border in southern Iraq. Following the unrest, several bombings were carried out in Ahvaz, killing 28 people. In 2006, Iran executed five Arab separatists, convicted of carrying out the bombings in 2005.
Ahvaz
The city had two sections; the nobles of the city lived in one part while the other was inhabited by merchants. When the Arabs invaded the area in 640, the part of the city home to the nobility was demolished but the "Hūj-ī-stānwāčār" "Market of Khūz State", the merchant area, remained intact. The city was therefore renamed "Sūq al-Ahwāz", "Market of the "Khuz"", a semi-literal translation of the Persian name of this quarter - "Ahwāz" being the Arabic broken plural of "Hûz", taken from the ancient Persian term for the native Elamite peoples, "Hūja" (remaining in medieval "khūzīg" "of the "Khuzh"" and modern "Khuzestān" "Khuz State", as noted by Dehkhoda dictionary.