Iran warns it will retaliate if US attacks as protesters defy crackdown

Iran has warned it’ll retaliate if attacked by the US, as experiences from BBC sources recommend a number of hundred protesters have now been killed and tons of extra injured.

Demonstrators once more defied a lethal crackdown on Saturday night time, and Iran’s police chief mentioned on state TV that the federal government’s response had intensified.

Medics at two hospitals informed the BBC that greater than 100 our bodies had been introduced in over a two-day interval. The nationwide dying toll is feared to be far larger. The US-based Human Rights Activist Information Company (HRANA) says it has verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 safety personnel.

One other 10,600 folks have been detained in the course of the two weeks of unrest, the company says.

The US has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters, and President Donald Trump mentioned on Saturday that the US “stands prepared to assist” as Iran “is FREEDOM”.

Trump didn’t elaborate on what the US was contemplating. He has been briefed on choices for army strikes on Iran, an official informed the BBC’s US information associate CBS.

Different approaches might embrace boosting anti-government sources on-line, utilizing cyber-weapons in opposition to Iran’s army, imposing extra sanctions, officers informed the Wall Road Journal.

Iran’s parliament speaker warned that if the US attacked, each Israel and US army and delivery centres within the area would grow to be reliable targets.

The protests had been sparked within the capital, Tehran, by hovering inflation, and are actually calling for an finish to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s lawyer common mentioned anybody protesting could be thought of an “enemy of God” – an offence that carries the dying penalty – whereas Khamenei has dismissed demonstrators as a “bunch of vandals” in search of to “please” Trump.

Employees at a number of hospitals have informed the BBC they have been overwhelmed with the injured and dead in current days.

BBC Persian has verified that 70 our bodies had been introduced to at least one hospital within the metropolis of Rasht on Friday night time, whereas a well being employee at a Tehran hospital informed the BBC: “Round 38 folks died. Many as quickly as they reached the emergency beds… direct photographs to the heads of the younger folks, to their hearts as effectively. A lot of them did not even make it to the hospital.”

Sources inside Iran have informed BBC Persian that plain-clothes officers have been concentrating on folks filming and on their very own on the protests.

The BBC and most different worldwide information organisations are unable to report from inside Iran, and the Iranian authorities has imposed an web shutdown since Thursday, making acquiring and verifying info tough.

Nonetheless, some footage has emerged, together with video exhibiting rows of physique baggage within the Kahrizak space of Tehran. Pictures seen by the BBC present about 182 shrouded or wrapped our bodies, many mendacity out within the open.

A number of movies confirmed as current by BBC Confirm present clashes between protesters and safety forces in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest metropolis.

Masked protesters could be seen taking cowl behind bins and bonfires, with a row of safety forces within the distance. A automobile that seems to be a bus is engulfed in flames.

A number of gunshots could be heard, and what appears like banging on pots and pans.

A determine standing on a close-by footbridge seems to fireside a number of gunshots in a number of instructions as a few folks take cowl behind a fence.

In Tehran, a verified video from Saturday night time exhibits protesters taking up the streets within the Gisha district, the sound of banging on pots in Punak Sq., and a crowd marching and calling for the top of clerical rule within the Heravi district.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has blamed the US and Israel for the unrest.

“They’ve educated sure people contained in the nation and overseas, introduced terrorists into the nation from exterior, set mosques on fireplace, and attacked markets and guilds in Rasht, setting the bazaar ablaze,” he mentioned with out offering proof.

Nonetheless, footage authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Confirm exhibits safety officers capturing at gatherings of protesters in a number of areas. They embrace Tehran, the western Kermanshah province, and the southern Bushehr area.

A number of verified movies filmed within the centre of the western metropolis of Ilam final weekend additionally present safety forces firing photographs in the direction of Imam Khomeini Hospital, the place a gaggle of protesters had been holding a rally.

Web entry in Iran is essentially restricted to a home intranet, with restricted hyperlinks to the surface world. However in the course of the present spherical of protests, authorities have for the primary time severely restricted that too.

An knowledgeable informed BBC Persian the shutdown is extra extreme than in the course of the “Girls, Life, Freedom” rebellion in 2022.

Alireza Manafi, an web researcher, mentioned the one probably means to hook up with the surface world was by way of Starlink satellite tv for pc, however warned customers to train warning as such connections might probably be traced by the federal government.

On Sunday, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, who lives within the US and whose return protesters have been calling for, informed demonstrators that Trump had “fastidiously noticed your indescribable bravery” in a social media put up.

“Your compatriots world wide are proudly shouting your voice,” he wrote, pledging: “I do know that I’ll quickly be by your facet.”

Pahlavi claimed the Islamic Republic was going through a “extreme scarcity of mercenaries” and that “many armed and safety forces have left their workplaces or disobeyed orders to suppress the folks”. The BBC couldn’t confirm these claims.

He inspired folks to proceed protesting on Sunday night, however to remain in teams or with crowds and never “endanger your lives”.

Amnesty Worldwide mentioned it was analysing “distressing experiences that safety forces had intensified their illegal use of deadly drive in opposition to protesters” since Thursday.

The protests have been probably the most widespread since an rebellion in 2022 sparked by the dying in custody of Mahsa Amini, a younger Kurdish lady who was detained by morality police for allegedly not carrying her hijab correctly.

Greater than 550 folks had been killed and 20,000 detained by safety forces over a number of months, in keeping with human rights teams.

Extra reporting by Soroush Pakzad, Roja Assadi and Ghoncheh Habibiazad