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Protesters gather as vehicles burn, amid developing anti-government unrest, in Tehran, Iran, in this screenshot taken from a social media video released January 9, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS:
Rights groups expressed alarm on Saturday that Iranian authorities were stepping up a deadly crackdown under the cover of an internet blackout, after another night of mass protests in the biggest demonstrations against the Islamic republic in years.
The two weeks of demonstrations have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities that have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, although Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expressed defiance and blamed the United States.
After the movement’s biggest protests yet on Thursday, new demonstrations took place late Friday, according to images confirmed by AFP and other videos posted on social media.
This was despite an internet shutdown imposed by the authorities, with monitor Netblocks saying on Saturday evening that “Iran has now been offline for 48 hours”.
Amnesty International said it was analyzing “worrying reports that security forces have intensified their unlawful use of lethal force against protesters” since Thursday in an escalation “that has led to further deaths and injuries”.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights Group has said at least 51 people have been killed in the attack so far, warning that the actual number could be higher.
It posted photos it said were of bodies of people shot dead in the protests on the floor of Alghadir Hospital in eastern Tehran.
“These images provide further evidence of the excessive and lethal use of force against protesters,” the IHR said.
Take city centers
In Tehran’s Saadatabad district, people banged pots and shouted anti-government slogans including “death to Khamenei” as cars jostled in support, a video confirmed by AFP showed.
Other images spread on social media and by Persian-language TV channels outside Iran showed similarly large protests elsewhere in the capital, as well as in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.
In the western city of Hamedan, a man was shown waving a Shah-era Iranian flag with the lion and sun under fire and people dancing.
The same flag briefly replaced the current Iranian flag over the country’s embassy in London when protesters managed to reach the building’s balcony, witnesses told AFP.
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, hailed the “magnificent” turnout on Friday and urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests on Saturday and Sunday.
“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centers,” Pahlavi said in a video message on social media.
Big problems
Pahlavi, whose father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted by the revolution in 1979 and died in 1980, added that he was also “preparing to return to my homeland” at a time he believed was “very close”.
Authorities say several members of the security forces have been killed, and Khamenei issued a defiant speech on Friday against “vandals” and accused the United States of fueling the protests.
On Thursday and Friday, an AFP journalist in Tehran saw streets deserted and plunged into darkness ahead of any protests.
On Valiasr Avenue, one of Tehran’s main streets, businesses closed unusually early.
“The area is not safe,” said a cafe manager as he prepared to close at around 4pm.
An AFP reporter saw shop windows smashed, as well as security forces being deployed.
State television on Saturday broadcast images of funerals for several members of the security forces killed in the protests, including a large gathering in the southern city of Shiraz.
It also broadcast images of buildings, including a mosque, on fire.
Iran’s army said in a statement that it will “vigorously protect and defend national interests” against an “enemy that seeks to disturb order and peace”.
The head of the National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said in comments issued late Friday that “we are in the middle of a war” where “these incidents are directed from outside”.
The Norway-based Hengaw rights group said it had confirmed that five Kurdish men had been shot dead by security forces in the western city of Kermanshah on Thursday, and another man, a former bodybuilding champion, was killed in the northern city of Rasht on Friday.
Global leaders have called for restraint from Iranian authorities, with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen saying Europe supported Iranians’ mass protests and condemned the “violent repression” against the protesters.
On Saturday, the start of the work week in Iran, a man in Tehran said he was unable to check his work email.
“This is the price to pay before the victory of the people,” he said.
US President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States is “ready to help” as protesters in Iran faced an intensifying crackdown by authorities in the Islamic republic.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, maybe like never before. The US is ready to help!!!” Trump said in a social post on Truth Social, without elaborating.
His comments come a day after he said Iran was in “big trouble” and again warned he could order military strikes.
