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Iranians took to the streets overnight, defying a government crackdown on nationwide protests as state media reported the deaths of several security force members.
Videos posted on social media purported to show crowds gathering in Tehran on Friday night chanting anti-regime slogans, despite warnings from authorities that protesters would not be afforded any “legal leniency”.
It was not possible to verify the videos as an internet blackout that has cut off the Islamic republic from the outside world stretched into a third day.
The demonstrations, which present the biggest domestic threat to the regime in several years, erupted as Iran grapples with external and domestic pressures including a depreciating currency, while the state has fewer resources to assuage the population’s anger.
Iranian state television reported on Saturday that three police officers were killed during the night in attacks on security forces in Shiraz and surrounding areas, quoting Tasnim, a state-affiliated news agency close to the Revolutionary Guards.
State media accused “armed groups” of attacking “public and private property in several provinces, causing extensive damage”, including mosques.
State TV said several security officials were also killed in Tehran on Thursday, when the protests first escalated, and that two police officers died in the religious city of Qom. Another two members of the security forces lost their lives in the city of Shushtar.
A local prosecutor and four members of the security forces were killed “during riots” in the northeastern town of Esfarayen on Thursday, it added. Several members of the Basij, a volunteer force affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, were also killed, the Press TV report on Saturday said.
But it also quoted Iran’s national police spokesman as saying that “calm” had returned to cities.
Press TV said that following “stern warnings from security authorities, most provinces saw no gatherings or disturbances . . . despite limited attempts by rioters to disrupt public order”.
The communications blackout meant it was not possible to verify the information.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said at least 28 protesters had been killed by a crackdown against the protests by January 3.
The 13-day demonstrations began in late December over economic grievances after shopkeepers in Tehran shuttered their stores to protest soaring prices. They have morphed into nationwide anti-regime demonstrations that have spread to smaller cities and towns across the republic’s provinces.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to power 18 months ago vowing to reform the economy, initially sought to placate the demonstrators. He met business leaders to discuss their concerns and appointed a new central bank governor to try to restore “economic stability”.
But as the protests intensified, with huge crowds taking to the streets of Tehran and other cities on Thursday, the start of the Iranian weekend, virtually all lines of communication were cut and the authorities stepped up warnings to the protesters.
“This is uncharted territory for the Islamic republic as they have organic, bottom-up pressure, with segments of the society that were historically the backbone of the republic protesting, which has mushroomed into something much bigger,” said Ellie Geranmayeh at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“There are no easy answers to this pressure, and combined with this you have the top-down pressure from the US and Israel.”
In a speech on Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused protesters of acting on behalf of US President Donald Trump and vowed his government would not back down. The regime has accused foreign forces and “terrorists” of stoking the protests.
Trump has threatened to come to the “rescue” if the regime kills demonstrators.
“Iran’s in big trouble,” Trump said on Friday. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago.”
The US president warned Iran’s leaders that “you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too”.
The protests are the most serious domestic threat to the regime since 2022, when a woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab and died in custody. More than 300 people were killed during a crackdown on those demonstrations, according to Amnesty International.
The latest wave of protests has included anti-regime slogans, including chants of “death to the dictator”, a reference to Khamenei, 86, who has ruled since 1989.
The rial has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran in June, assassinating top military commanders and nuclear scientists, destroying air defences and — along with the US — bombing nuclear facilities.
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