Protesters ignored threats to severe punishment of Iranian leaders and warnings from rights groups of unlawful killings as they poured onto the streets of cities across the country Friday night.
The new protests took place as President Donald Trump once again warned the Islamic regime that it would intervene if protesters were killed. “I say to the Iranian leaders: you better not start shooting because we will start shooting too,” he said during a meeting with oil executives.
The protests, which began nearly two weeks ago with economic demands over last week’s collapsing currency and soaring inflation, have transformed into one of the biggest challenges the Islamic Republic has faced in its 47-year history, with thousands of people taking to the streets of large and small cities across the country to demand the departure of the ruling clergy.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s highest authority, took a hard line in a fiery speech Friday and said the Islamic Republic would not back down in the face of internal protests or external pressure, a stance that will likely push security forces to go after protesters even more violently, analysts say.
“Right now we are very concerned that after the internet shutdown, the brutality will increase,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, said in a telephone interview with NBC News.
The organization reported at least 51 people killed, including eight children, spread across 11 provinces of the country during the two weeks of protests. in a report published Friday.
Amnesty International issued a similarly harsh warning on Friday. in an article on.
“Iranian authorities have once again deliberately blocked internet access in Iran to hide the true scale of the serious human rights violations and crimes under international law they are committing to crush nationwide protests,” the group said.
Videos released Friday and geotagged by NBC News showed huge crowds in Mashhad and Tehran chanting slogans against Khamenei.
A message showing the protesters in Tehran’s Saadat Abad neighborhood, notes that the video clip was sent via Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, which could be a way for protesters to get around the internet outage. It is known that Starlink terminals have been smuggled into Iran during the last major wave of protests in 2022 and 2023.
Videos posted on social media since Thursday also indicate that security forces likely triggered a fierce and bloody repression across the country and some protesters attacked government buildings.
Amiry-Moghaddam said his organization had heard of a “massive use of violence” in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran.
A video posted online, said to be from Fardis, a town between Karaj and Tehran, and released on Friday, shows several bodies lying on a blood-stained ground while the man filming says: “They fired with war bullets and killed the people!” »
NBC News has not independently verified the content of the video.
A separate video geotagged by NBC News shows the municipal building in the town of Karaj in flames.
Violence also broke out in the southeastern Iranian town of Zahedan after Friday prayers. Security forces opened fire on the crowd protesters, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish monitoring group registered in Norway that monitors rights violations across Iran.
Zahedan, home to a large community of Iran’s Baloch ethnic minority, has also been a hotbed of protests in 2022 and several protesters were shot dead by security forces after Friday prayers, which became known as “Bloody Friday”.
The violence in Iran comes as Trump again warned the country’s leaders on Friday not to kill protesters.
“I made it very clear that if they started killing people like they did in the past, we would get involved,” he said during a meeting with oil executives attended by journalists. “We’re going to hit them really hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean we have to stay down, but it means hit them really, really hard where it hurts.”
Trump later added: “I say to the Iranian leaders: You better not start shooting because we will start shooting too. »
“The United States stands with the courageous people of Iran,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a message on X Friday evening.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a joint statement on Friday urging Iranian authorities to “show restraint.”
“We are deeply concerned by reports of violence by Iranian security forces and strongly condemn the killing of protesters,” the statement said. “The Iranian authorities have a responsibility to protect their own population and must guarantee freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisals. »
As the Iranian government escalates violence, the protests are unlikely to stop anytime soon, analysts say.
“In every round of protests over the past decade, the initial trigger has become embedded in broader discontent with the broader system,” Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, said in a text message in response to questions. “This is one of the main challenges facing the state: it can suppress discontent, but fails to address the underlying political, social and economic grievances.”
Babak Dehghanpisheh is an international editor for NBC News Digital based in New York.
Colin Sheeley is a senior reporter for NBC News’ Social Newsgathering team based in New York.
Caroline Kenny
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