Iran is facing its biggest protests in years as videos shared on social media show huge demonstrations against the hardline Islamic regime in Tehran and other cities around the country.
The movement, which began in Tehran in late December after the value of the Iranian rial plunged to record lows, has rapidly advanced across the country and is now being marked by larger-scale demonstrations in 348 towns and cities across all 31 of Iran's provinces.
The widespread protests have left Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel, deeply rattled as they are the biggest and most sustained the country has seen in years.
Trump threatened yesterday to take severe action against Iran if its authorities 'start killing people', warning Washington would 'hit them very hard'.
But a defiant Khamenei said he would 'not back down' from his government's crackdown on protesters, who he described as 'vandals' and 'saboteurs', in a speech broadcast on state TV.
According to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, Iran's security forces had murdered at least 45 people, including eight children, since protests began.
It added that Wednesday was the bloodiest day of demonstrations, with 13 protesters confirmed to have been killed in a single day.
'The evidence shows that the scope of the crackdown is becoming more violent and more extensive every day,' said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding that hundreds more have been wounded and more than 2,000 arrested.
Iranian media and official statements have reported at least 21 people, including security forces, killed since the unrest began.
Iranian protesters on Thursday stepped up their challenge to the clerical leadership with the biggest protests yet of nearly two weeks of rallies, as authorities cut internet access and the death toll from a crackdown mounted
Despite the crackdown, protests were again taking place into the night on Thursday
A large crowd was seen gathering on the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard in the northwest of Tehran, according to social media images verified by AFP, while other images showed a crowd demonstrating in the western city of Abadan
The movement, which began in Tehran in late December after the value of the Iranian rial plunged to record lows
Speaking to supporters in his first comments on the escalating protests since January 3, Khamenei said Trump's hands 'are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians' and predicted the 'arrogant' US leader would be 'overthrown' like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.
On Wednesday an Iranian police officer was killed west of Tehran trying 'to control unrest', the Fars news agency said.
Despite the crackdown, protests raged well into the night on Thursday.
A large crowd was seen gathering on the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard in the northwest of Tehran, while other images showed a crowd demonstrating in the western city of Abadan.
As protests roiled cities across the country, online watchdog Netblocks said on Thursday that 'live metrics show Iran is now in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout'.
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in the US said the Iranian clerical system had survived repeated protest cycles by repression and tactical concessions but the strategy was reaching its limits.
'Change now looks inevitable; regime collapse is possible but not guaranteed,' he said.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and a key exiled opposition figure, urged more major protests on Thursday.
Iraq-based Iranian Kurdish opposition parties called for a general strike on Thursday in Kurdish-populated areas in western Iran.
In a video verified by AFP, protesters in Kuhchenar in the southern Fars province were seen cheering overnight as they pulled down a statue of the former foreign operations commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in January 2020
Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the clerical leadership, including 'Pahlavi will return' and 'Seyyed Ali will be toppled', in reference to Khamenei
The movement has also spread to higher education, with final exams at Tehran's major Amir Kabir university postponed for a week, according to ISNA news agency
The Hengaw rights group said the call had been widely followed in some 30 towns and cities, posting footage of shuttered shops in the western provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan.
It accused authorities of firing on demonstrators in Kermanshah and the nearby town of Kamyaran to the north, injuring several protesters.
IHR said a woman at a protest late on Wednesday in Abadan was shot directly in the eye.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday called for 'utmost restraint' in handling demonstrations, saying that 'any violent or coercive behaviour should be avoided'.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, meanwhile, condemned the 'excessive use of force' against protesters.
Protesters in Kuhchenar in the southern Fars province were seen cheering overnight as they pulled down a statue of the former foreign operations commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in January 2020.
Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the clerical leadership, including 'Pahlavi will return' and 'Seyyed Ali will be toppled', in reference to Khamenei.
The movement has also spread to higher education, with final exams at Tehran's major Amir Kabir university postponed for a week, according to ISNA news agency.
The demonstrations are the biggest in Iran since the protest wave in 2022-2023 sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.
Rights groups have also accused authorities of resorting to tactics including raiding hospitals to detain wounded protesters.
'Iran's security forces have injured and killed both protesters and bystanders,' said Amnesty International, accusing authorities of using 'unlawful force'.
