Iran warns it will retaliate if US attacks, as hundreds killed in protests

Shayan Sardarizadeh,

Richard Irvine-Brown,Check BBC,

Ghoncheh HabibiazadAnd

Sarah Namjoo,Persian BBC

Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the United States, as BBC sources and activists report that hundreds of protesters have been killed in the growing government crackdown.

“Things here are very, very bad,” a source in Tehran said on Sunday. “A lot of our friends were killed. They were shooting with live ammunition. It’s like a war zone, the streets are full of blood. They’re taking the bodies away in trucks.”

The BBC counted around 180 body bags in footage filmed near Tehran. The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) claims to have verified the deaths of 495 protesters and 48 members of the security forces across the country.

Another 10,600 people were arrested during the fortnight of unrest, according to the agency.

The United States has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters, and President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States “stands ready to help” as Iran “looks toward FREEDOM.”

Trump did not specify what the United States was considering. He was briefed on the possibility of military strikes against Iran, an official told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

Other approaches could include strengthening anti-government sources online, using cyberweapons against the Iranian military or imposing more sanctions, officials told the Wall Street Journal.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament warned that if the United States attacked, Israel and American military and maritime centers in the region would become legitimate targets.

Protests that began over soaring inflation are now calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s attorney general said anyone protesting would be considered an “enemy of God” – an offense punishable by death – while Khamenei called the demonstrators a “band of vandals” seeking to “please” Trump.

On Sunday, the country announced three days of mourning for what it called “martyrs killed in Iran’s national battle against the United States and Israel.”

Staff at several hospitals told the BBC they were overwhelmed by dead or injured demonstrators these last few days.

The Persian BBC verified that 70 bodies were taken to a hospital in the city of Rasht on Friday evening, while a health worker at a Tehran hospital told the BBC: “Around 38 people died. Many, as soon as they reached the emergency beds… direct shots to the heads of young people, as well as their hearts. Many of them did not even make it to the hospital.”

The BBC and most other international news organizations are unable to report on Iran, and the Iranian government has imposed an Internet shutdown since Thursday, making it difficult to obtain and verify information.

Some images were released, including a video showing rows of body bags at the Tehran Province Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Center in Kahrizak.

In a video from the site, around 180 shrouded or shrouded figures can be seen, the majority lying in the open. Screams and cries of distress can be heard from people who appear to be searching for their loved ones.

Several videos confirmed as recent by BBC Verify show clashes between protesters and security forces in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.

Masked protesters can be seen hiding behind trash cans and bonfires, with a line of security forces in the distance. A vehicle that looks like a bus is engulfed in flames.

Several gunshots can be heard and what sounds like banging on pots and pans.

A figure standing on a nearby walkway appears to fire several shots in multiple directions as a few people hide behind a fence.

In Tehran, verified video from Saturday evening shows protesters taking to the streets of the Gisha neighborhood, sounds of banging pots and pans in Punak Square, and a crowd marching and calling for an end to clerical rule in the Heravi neighborhood.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed the United States and Israel for the unrest.

“They trained some individuals inside the country and abroad, brought terrorists from outside into the country, burned down mosques and attacked markets and corporations in Rasht, setting fire to the bazaar,” he said without providing evidence.

However, footage authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Verify confirms that Iranian security agents fired on gatherings of protesters in several areas. They include Tehran, the western province of Kermanshah and the southern region of Bushehr.

Several verified videos filmed last weekend in the center of the western city of Ilam also show security forces firing shots towards Imam Khomeini Hospital, where protesters were holding a rally.

Internet access in Iran is largely limited to a national intranet, with restricted links to the outside world. But during the current protests, the authorities have also severely restricted this right for the first time.

An expert told the Persian BBC that the closure was more severe than during the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising.

Internet researcher Alireza Manafi said the only likely way to connect to the outside world was via the Starlink satellite, but warned users to exercise caution because such connections could potentially be traced by the government.

Sunday, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah of Iranwho lives in the United States and whose return protesters are demanding, told demonstrators that Trump had “carefully observed your indescribable courage” in a social media post.

“Your compatriots around the world proudly shout your voice,” he wrote, promising: “I know I will soon be at your side.”

Pahlavi claimed that the Islamic Republic was facing a “severe shortage of mercenaries” and that “many armed and security forces have left their workplaces or disobeyed orders to suppress the population.” The BBC was unable to verify these claims.

He encouraged people to continue protesting Sunday evening, but to stay in groups or crowds and not “put their lives in danger.”

In the United Kingdom, videos shared on social media appear to show protesters removing the Iranian flag from a balcony at the London embassy on Saturday and Sunday.

Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran following the incidents, according to Iranian state media.

These protests are the most widespread since the 2022 uprising sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman arrested by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

More than 550 people were killed and 20,000 detained by security forces for several months, according to human rights groups.

Additional reporting by Soroush Pakzad and Roja Assadi