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  Iran's clerical authorities have accused the US and Israel of fomenting unrest and said unnamed people they call terrorists have hijacked the protests. Dubai: About 2,000 people, including security personnel, have been killed in protests in Iran, an Iranian official said on Tuesday, the first time authorities have acknowledged the high death count from an intense crackdown on two weeks of nationwide unrest. The Iranian official, speaking to  Reuters , said that what he called terrorists were behind the deaths of both protesters and security personnel. The official did not give a breakdown of who had been killed. The unrest, sparked by dire economic conditions, has been the biggest internal challenge to Iranian authorities for at least three years and comes amid intensifying international pressure after Israeli and US strikes last year. Iran's clerical authorities, in power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have tried to take a dual approach to the demonstrations, calling pr...