{"id":540963,"date":"2026-01-25T04:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T04:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/540963\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T04:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T04:08:17","slug":"scale-of-iran-protests-and-crackdown-come-into-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/540963\/","title":{"rendered":"Scale of Iran protests and crackdown come into focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The bloodiest crackdown on dissent<\/a> since Iran\u2019s 1979 Islamic Revolution is slowly coming into focus, despite authorities cutting off the Islamic Republic<\/a> from the internet and much of the wider world.<\/p>\n

Cities and towns smell of smoke as fire-damaged mosques and government offices line streets. Banks have been torched, their ATMs smashed. Officials estimate the damage to be at least $125 million, according to an Associated Press tally of reports by the state-run IRNA news agency from over 20 cities. <\/p>\n

The number of dead demonstrators reported by activists continues to swell. Activists warn it shows Iran engaging in the same tactics it has used for decades, but at an unprecedented scale \u2014 firing from rooftops on demonstrators, shooting birdshot into crowds and sending motorcycle-riding paramilitary Revolutionary Guard volunteers in to beat and detain those who can\u2019t escape. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of protesters were peaceful. The video footage shows crowds of people \u2014 including children and families \u2014 chanting, dancing around bonfires, marching on their streets,\u201d said Raha Bahreini, of Amnesty International. \u201cThe authorities have opened fire unlawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

The killing of peaceful protesters \u2014 as well as the threat of mass executions<\/a> \u2014 have been a red line for military action for U.S. President Donald Trump. An American aircraft carrier and warships are approaching the Mideast, possibly allowing Trump to launch another attack on Iran after bombing its nuclear enrichment sites last year. That risks igniting a new Mideast war. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s mission to the United Nations did not respond to detailed questions from the AP regarding the suppression of the demonstrations. <\/p>\n

Protests over rial spiral<\/p>\n

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 at Tehran\u2019s historic Grand Bazaar, initially over the collapse of Iran\u2019s currency, the rial, then spread across the country. <\/p>\n

Tensions exploded on Jan. 8, with demonstrations called for by Iran\u2019s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi<\/a>. Witnesses in Tehran told the AP before authorities cut internet<\/a> and phone communication that they saw tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets.<\/p>\n

As communications failed, gunfire echoed through Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany witnesses said they had never seen such a large number of protesters on the streets,\u201d said Bahar Saba of Human Rights Watch. \u201cIranian authorities have repeatedly shown they have no answers other than bullets and brutal repression to people taking to the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, a deputy interior minister speaking on state TV Wednesday, acknowledged the violence began in earnest on Jan. 8. <\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 400 cities were involved,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

By Jan. 9, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the force, went on Iranian state TV and warned \u201cmothers and fathers\u201d to keep their children home. <\/p>\n

\u201cTonight you all must be vigilant. Tonight is the night for keeping mosques, all bases everywhere filled with \u2018Hezbollahi,\u2019\u201d Yekta said, using a word for \u201cfollowers of God\u201d that carries the connotation of fervent supporters of Iran\u2019s theocracy. <\/p>\n

Already weakened by the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June, the authorities decided to fully employ violence to end the demonstrations, experts said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the regime viewed it as this was a moment of existential threat and that they could either allow it to play out and allow the protests to build and allow foreign powers to increase their rhetoric and increase their demands on Iran,\u201d said Afshon Ostovar, an expert on the Revolutionary Guard and professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California. <\/p>\n

\u201cOr they could turn out the lights, kill as many people as necessary … and hope they could get away with it. And I think that\u2019s what they ultimately did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basij key in disrupting protests<\/p>\n

In Iran, one of the main ways its theocracy can squash demonstrations is through the Basij, the Guard\u2019s volunteer arm. <\/p>\n

Mosques in Iran include facilities for the Basij. Guard Gen. Heydar Baba Ahmadi was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency in 2024 as estimating \u201c79% of Basij resistance bases are located in mosques and 5% in other holy places.\u201d <\/p>\n

Iranian state media repeatedly has aired images of mosques damaged in the protests without exploring their links to the Basij. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost neighborhood Basij bases are co-located with mosques and most neighborhood Basij leaders are associated with the mosque leadership,\u201d Ostovar said, adding that demonstrators \u201cgoing after regime targets\u201d associated with repression would have considered them \u201ca legitimate part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Videos show Basij holding long guns, batons and pellet guns. Anti-riot police can be seen wearing helmets and body armor, carrying assault rifles and submachine guns. <\/p>\n

The videos show police firing shotguns into crowds, something authorities deny despite corpses showing wounds consistent with metal birdshot. Scores have reportedly suffered blinding eye wounds from birdshot \u2014 something seen in the protests around the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s semiofficial ILNA news agency reported that Tehran\u2019s Farabi Eye Hospital, the premiere clinic for eye injuries, called in \u201call current and retired doctors\u201d to help those injured. <\/p>\n

We \u201creceived accounts that the security forces were just firing relentlessly at protesters,\u201d said Bahreini of Amnesty International. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not just targeting one or two people to create a climate of terror for people to disperse … but just relentlessly firing at thousands of protesters and chasing after them, even as they were fleeing so that more people were just collapsing to the ground with severe gunshot wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casualties grow as crackdown intensifies<\/p>\n

For two weeks, Iran offered no overall casualty figures. Then on Wednesday, the government said 3,117 people were killed<\/a>, including 2,427 civilians and security forces. That left another 690 dead that Pourjamshidian identified as \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

That conflicts with figures from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency<\/a>, which put the death toll on Saturday at 5,137, based on activists inside Iran verifying fatalities against public records and witness statements. It said 4,834 were demonstrators, 208 were government-affiliated personnel, 54 were children and 41 were civilians not participating in protests.<\/p>\n

Death tolls in Iran have long been inflated or deflated for political reasons. But the fact that Iran\u2019s theocracy offered any death toll \u2014 and gave a number beyond any other political unrest to strike the country in the modern era \u2014 underlines the scale of what happened. <\/p>\n

It also provides a justification for the ongoing mass arrest campaign and internet shutdown. State media report dozens to hundreds of people detained daily. <\/p>\n

Pourjamshidian also gave an extensive list of vandalism from the protests and crackdown, including 750 banks, 414 government buildings, 600 ATMs and hundreds of vehicles that sustained damage.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, uncertainty looms for Iran\u2019s theocracy over what Trump may or may not do. <\/p>\n

Traditionally, Iranians hold memorial services for their late loved ones 40 days after their deaths \u2014 meaning the country could see renewed demonstrations around Feb. 17. Online videos from Behesht-e Zahra, the massive cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran, show mourners chanting: \u201cDeath to Khamenei!\u201d<\/p>\n

Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show large numbers of cars daily at Behesht-e Zahra\u2019s southern reaches, where those killed in the demonstrations are being buried. <\/p>\n

Elaheh Mohammadi, a journalist at Tehran\u2019s pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan, recently noted it had been shut by authorities. She said journalists were working on stories about Behesht-e Zahra they weren\u2019t able to publish. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe send out a message to let people know we\u2019re still alive,\u201d Mohammadi wrote online. \u201cThe city smells of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHard days have passed and everyone is stunned; a whole country is in mourning, a whole country is holding back tears, a whole country has a lump in its throat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The bloodiest crackdown on dissent since Iran\u2019s 1979 Islamic Revolution is slowly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":540964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[238703,105187,3881,64,69,57,712,83,3461,50,80,402,11224,235115,2053,93,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-540963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ali-akbar-pourjamshidian","9":"tag-amnesty-international","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-internet","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-iran-government","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","20":"tag-reza-pahlavi","21":"tag-send-to-apple-news","22":"tag-tehran","23":"tag-washington-news","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115953776035374943","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}