Iran protests latest: Tehran says ‘we are ready for war’ after Trump threatens military action

Shocking footage shared from Iran appears to show scores of bodies in black bags strewn across a forensic facility in the capital, Tehran.

It comes as rights groups warn that well over 500 people have been killed in a bloody government crackdown after two weeks of nationwide protests calling for regime change.

Five separate clips shared by activists online show bodies, some bloodied and just in their underwear, littering the compound of the facility, where identification and death certificates are reportedly being issued.

Mourners are seen sobbing uncontrollably, some collapsing on the ground, as they move between the dead who are laid out inside several warehouses and even along an internal road in Tehran.

Two Iranian activist accounts, which have become credible sources of images smuggled out of the country, named the location as the Kahrizak forensic laboratory. They separately wrote that the regime had summoned civilians there to identify their dead.

With a nationwide international blackout in place, The Independent was unable to verify the footage, but matched parts of the buildings in the videos to satellite imagery of the sprawling facility, which is located just 20 km south of the city centre.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has said the violence must end in Iran.

He described the Iranian crack down on protesters as a sign of weakness in the regime, now strength.

Communication lines between Tehran and Washington remain open, such as through a US special envoy or traditional intermediaries such as Switzerland, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.

He was responding, via an English translation, to a question about contact with U.S. President Donald Trump as Tehran faces protests.

Trump said on Sunday that Iran had called to negotiate its nuclear programme. Baghaei said that “contradictory messages” had been sent that caused ambiguity and that Iran remained committed to diplomacy.

This article, written by Mojtaba Dehghani, first appeared on our partner site, Independent Persian.

Over more than three decades of rule, Khamenei has faced repeated waves of unrests, protests and social and political movements: the Mashhad riots of 1992, the Islamshahr and Shiraz protests that followed, the student movement of 1999, the Green Movement of 2009, the December 2017 protests, the November 2019 uprising and finally the Mahsa movement of 2022.

Each time, the regime survived, at the cost of mass repression, killings and immense political and economic damage. That history may have led Khamenei and the small circle around him to believe that this latest wave of protests can also be crushed using the same old methods: violent suppression, attrition, cutting communications and dividing the opposition.

But what is unfolding today is fundamentally and strategically different.

A government minister has suggested the government would not pursue a ban on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but refused to say whether the UK would support US intervention in Iran.

Business secretary Peter Kyle cited an independent review which he said found proscription for a foreign state organisation would not be an “appropriate” use of domestic legislation.

He told Times Radio: “When you look at domestic terror legislation, the way that we proscribe domestic organisations is using domestic legislation.

“The independent reviewer has said that that isn’t appropriate used for state bodies, but we are looking very closely at these issues.”

However, when asked by Sky News whether the government would support the US if it decided to strike on Iran, he said: “Well there’s a lot of ifs in the question itself, so we have to see how this unfolds. We need to understand specifically what Donald Trump and America is proposing.”

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew reports:

On Sunday, several Iranian Telegram pages and social media groups linked to the activist community, shared multiple clips filmed from different angles, apparently showing dozens, if not hundreds, of bodies in body bags laid out on the floor of a forensic facility in a southern area of Tehran. The Independent was unable to independently verify these.

In one series of clips shared by Sarah Ramani, an Iranian activist based out outside of the country, women can be heard screaming and crying, some collapsing in grief, while others move between bodies littering the ground inside and outside a warehouse, looking for their loved ones. The footage was allegedly filmed by someone on Thursday, who has since managed to leave Iran. A different video shared by “Vahid Online” the pseudonym of a popular Iranian blogger, also out of the country, appear to show similar scenes from the same facility.

Iranian state TV has also aired footage of dozens of body bags on the ground of Tehran’s coroner’s office, although it claims the dead were victims of “armed terrorists”.

Other video footage The Independent has seen includes the sound of continuous gunfire. Eyewitness accounts shared with activists’ Twitter accounts via Starlink describe widespread slaughter.

One person, reportedly speaking from the Narmak neighbourhood in the north-east of the capital, said the regime opened fire into crowds.

“I saw all the streets covered in bloodstains. They were washing the blood of this country’s children off the asphalt with high-pressure water after massacring them. There were bloodstains on all the city streets,” the unnamed person said.

Another added that mobile and landline calls are not working and that the regime is sending texts warning citizens not to leave their homes because “armed terrorists are out”. Shops are empty and food is running out.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has held a press conference in which it discussed the ongoing situation in Iran – specifically Donald Trump’s threats to strike the country.

“We have always opposed interference in other countries’ internal affairs and consistently advocated that the sovereignty and security of all nations should be fully protected by international law,” spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular news briefing.

Beijing has a deep and enduring relationship with Iran, both economically and in its political alignment against the West.

We’re hearing more from Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who has said the situation in Iran is “under total control” after the protests over the weekend.

Araghchi said Donald Trump’s warning against Tehran of action – should protests turn bloody – motivated “terrorists” to target protesters and security forces in order to invite foreign intervention.

“We are ready for war but also for dialogue,”, Araghchi said, referring to Trump’s threats. He added that Iran wants to hold talks with the USs, after Trump said on Sunday that Tehran “wants to negotiate”.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has just said that internet service will be restored in Iran, in coordination with security authorities.

It is not yet clear what the time frame on this restoration will be, but by restoring the internet, a much clearer picture of what has taken place in the past week is likely to emerge.

Stay with us throughout the day for all the latest.