Iran kills 50 protesters in defiance of Donald Trump's warning
Iranian security personnel have killed at least 50 protesters in a sign of the regime's defiance of US President Donald Trump's warning of intervention if bloodshed continued.The death toll is expected to increase as local hospitals report being overrun with casualties, including many with gunshot wounds, while some families are too terrified to get medical help for fear of being arrested.Iranian rights group HRANA reported 65 deaths including 50 protesters and 15 security personnel as of January 9, while the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said more than 2,500 people have been arrested in the last two weeks.It comes after Trump said on Friday it looked as if Iran's leaders were 'in big trouble' and repeated his earlier threat of military strikes if peaceful protesters are killed.'It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,' Trump said.And speaking on Air Force One earlier this week, he told journalists: 'We're watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States.' Protests have taken place across Iran for 13 days in a movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, with growing calls for the end of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which ousted the pro-Western shah.Unrest continued overnight, with state media reporting a municipal building was set on fire in Karaj, west of Tehran, for which they blamed 'rioters'.Protests have spread to more than 220 towns and cities in every one of Iran's 31 provinces. Protests have taken place across Iran for 13 days in a movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, but which have escalated into calls for regime change Demonstrations continued overnight in Tehran's Kaj Square (pictured) as unrest across Iran entered its third week Thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran as well as cities and towns across all of Iran's 31 provinces (Pictured: Protesters in Mashhad, northeastern Iran) It comes after US President Donald Trump said on Friday it looked as if Iran's leaders were 'in big trouble' and repeated his earlier threat of military strikes if peaceful protesters are killedSocial media images showed thousands participating in Tehran, while videos published by Persian language television channels based outside Iran showed large numbers taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.But the country's infamous Revolutionary Guards and other law enforcement agencies are launching a brutal crackdown, with the nation's attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning anyone taking part in protests would be considered 'an enemy of God'.This offence is punishable by death under Iran's strict laws, and even those who assisted protesters would also be prosecuted, a statement on state TV reported.'Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,' it read.'Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.' It appears to be a desperate bid to try and limit the number of protesters after Friday night saw some of the largest swells of activists yet.Videos show many chanted 'death to the dictator' and 'death to Khamenei', while others banged pots and pans. While some protests have been peaceful, videos in some cities show burning buildings, overturned cars and authorities opening fire. A doctor in northwestern Iran said that since Friday, large numbers of injured protesters had been brought to hospitals. Some were badly beaten, suffering head injuries and broken legs and arms, as well as deep cuts.At least 20 people in one hospital had been shot with live ammunition, five of whom later died.The US-based son of Iran's ousted shah urged Iranians on Saturday to stage more targeted protests with the aim of taking and then holding city centres. Thousands of protesters gather in Tehran on Friday night as protests continue to sweep the country A fire is filmed by protesters in Tehran, the capital of Iran, on Friday The movement marks the biggest threat to the Islamic Republic in years and has seen a typically brutal crackdown from the country's Revolutionary Guards A nationwide internet blackout has now been going on for more than 36 hours, making monitoring of events increasingly challenging (Pictured: Protesters in Kermanshah, Iran on January 8) The Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei described protesters as 'vandals' - 30 seconds of his speech was aired during the BBC's news report'Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,' Reza Pahlavi said in a video message on social media.He urged more protests on Saturday and Sunday and said he was 'preparing to return to my homeland' in a day he believed was 'very near'. It came after he appealed for the help of Trump on Friday.These protests followed giant demonstrations on Thursday that were the biggest in Iran since the 2022-2023 protest movement sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress rules for women.The rallies came as internet monitor NetBlocks said authorities imposed a 'nationwide internet shutdown' for the last 36 hours that was violating the rights of Iranians and 'masking regime violence'.Amnesty International said the 'blanket internet shutdown' aims to 'hide the true extent of the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law they are carrying out to crush' the protests.On Saturday morning, a local governor of the Tehran province told Tasnim news agency, which is associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, that 100 people had been arrested.Those detained were accused of having 'disrupted public order' and 'used firearms and cold weapons against the people and security and law enforcement forces' in the county of Baharestan.In his first comments on the escalating protests since January 3, Khamenei on Friday called the demonstrators 'vandals' and 'saboteurs'.Khamenei, in a speech broadcast on state TV, said US President Donald Trump's hands 'are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians', in apparent reference to Israel's June war against the Islamic republic, which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own. Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Kermanshah, Iran on January 8 People gather on the streets during a protest in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran this week as activists gathered in towns and cities in all 31 of Iran's provincesHe predicted the 'arrogant' US leader would be 'overthrown' like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.'Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs.'Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on a visit to Lebanon on Friday accused Washington and Israel of 'directly intervening' to try to 'transform the peaceful protests into divisive and violent ones', which a US State Department spokesperson called 'delusional'.In a joint statement Friday, the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada and the European Union issued a strong condemnation and called on Iran to 'immediately end the use of excessive and lethal force by its security forces'.
