WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday sanctioned senior employees of an Iranian state-run media corporation it accused of being a "critical tool" in Iran's suppression and censorship of its people, stepping up pressure on Tehran over its crackdown on protests.The Treasury said IRIB has broadcast hundreds of forced confessions of detainees and produced and broadcast interviews of people being forced to assert that their relatives were not killed by Iranian authorities during recent protests but instead died due to accidental, unrelated causes."The United States remains committed to supporting the Iranian people as they continue their peaceful protests," he said, adding that Washington would continue to hold the Iranian government accountable for human rights violations and censorship.Monday's move targeted two of the media corporation's "interrogator-journalists," who Treasury accused of cooperating with the government in extracting and airing forced confessions, as well as the director and deputy director of IRIB, among others.Demonstrations following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept. 16 have become one of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution."