As protests in Iran swell into a nationwide uprising the regime has so far failed to crush, the death toll continues to rise, drawing global attention to the ayatollahs’ ruthless and bloody repression.
Protests have now spread to more than 200 cities, with news commentators referring to the mounting clashes between protesters and security forces as “a revolution in the streets.”
“From Qom and Mashhad, the most religious cities, to Rasht and Anzali, the most secular, teeming crowds of Iranians light fires in the streets, waving flags and chanting slogans that denounce the Islamic Republic,” an article in The Spectator observed.
“Iran is not merely experiencing another wave of street protests. It is facing a crisis that strikes at the core of the Islamic Republic—and, for the first time in years, places the regime’s survival in real doubt,” argued Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, a Fox News military analyst in an op-ed.
“Still, one must be clear-eyed: Iran’s leaders will not go quietly. They do not see themselves as ordinary autocrats clinging to power.” As power-wielding religious tyrants have done in every age, the Iranian clerics who control the country preach that their power is “divinely ordained,” the writer said.
“These [fanatics] see themselves as executing “Allah’s will.” Suppressing political opposition—which is viewed as religious heresy—is their divine duty.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly rejected allegations of human rights abuses, casting demonstrators as “enemies of G-d,” a charge the regime has historically used to justify the harshest punishment,” the military analyst explained.
As an example of this fanatic mindset: Mohammad Movahedi Azad, Iran’s attorney general, warned in a state television statement that those taking part in the defiant Tehran demonstrations would be considered an “enemy of G-d” — and sentenced to the death penalty, according to Islamist shariah law.
Even those found to have “helped rioters” could face the death-sentence charge and be executed, Azad threatened, going on to demand that legal proceedings against those charged “must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”
Shooting at Unarmed Civilians with Live Ammunition
As demonstrations entered a third week, flaring in more than 26 provinces in hundreds of cities, police and paramilitary forces began shooting at unarmed crowds with live ammunition, causing mass casualties, media sources report.
Hundreds of body bags strewn at protest sites attest to the regime’s attempt to use the deadliest measures to crush the uprisings. Even conservative figures indicate that at least 2,000 people may have been killed in recent days, with sources describing especially severe violence in Karaj’s Fardis district and Tehran areas. Similar accounts have emerged from many other regions, including the western provinces of Ilam and Kermanshah. On Tuesday, the opposition channel, Iran International, claimed that at least 12,000 have been killed by the regime forces.
Before the regime pulled the “kill switch” that cut off internet connectivity and cell phone communications with the world, videos showed what appeared to be thousands of protestors in northern Tehran, shouting anti-regime slogans and waving flags, including, shockingly, the Israeli flag.
Even in formerly patriotic Mashhad, the birthplace of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, protesters faced off with police, creating roadblocks and lighting fires.
Human rights groups said Iranian authorities had used the cover of the internet shutdown to expand their retaliation against protesters, using deadly force and live ammunition to disperse demonstrations.
Despite the blackout, videos and messages—often via Starlink, a massive collection of small satellites orbiting Earth—continue reaching Iran International, an opposition group based in France.
Video footage that has leaked out shows the grim aftermath of what appears to be massacres carried out at various sites, with body bags covering a parking lot, the interior of a warehouse, and a medical center as people frantically search among the bags for their loved ones.
Despite Escalating Brutality, No Signs of Retreat
The current protest movement in Iran stands out as the most violent unrest the country has experienced in years. The demonstrations were initially triggered by soaring inflation and a devastated economy where basic foods are currently outside the reach of many ordinary Iranians, and water and electricity are strictly rationed.
Increasingly, demonstrators began calling for the downfall of a despotic regime that has been pouring all the country’s resources into nuclear ambitions and massive terrorist operations, instead of feeding its own population.
In contrast to previous uprisings that were swiftly crushed by the state’s police and paramilitary forces, the current movement shows no sign of retreating.
Some experts speculate that a key difference in the current situation is the regime’s fear that President Donald Trump, who has threatened to bomb Teheran if the regime kills unarmed protesters, might try to pull off a “Venezuelan operation” in Iran, potentially targeting Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound or hiding places.
“If they start shooting people, as they’ve done in the past, we’ll have to start shooting too,” Trump said at a press conference last week.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help,” the president wrote on the Truth Social platform earlier in the week.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported US officials as saying that Trump had been presented with military options for a strike on Iran by his national security team, but had not yet decided on his course of action.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
The White House is reportedly weighing direct strikes on Iranian military targets in response to the shooting of protesters; cyberattacks to disable the regime’s command and control; and targeted strikes on high-level officials to encourage military defections.
The threats from the United States sparked a backlash from Iranian officials, with the speaker of the parliament warning that the U.S. and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington struck Iran.
“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said.
Israeli officials said they were on high alert, opting to stay out of the conflict to avoid giving Iran grounds to cast the protest movement as fomented by Israel.
“We are sending strength to the courageous citizens of Iran — and once the regime falls, we will do good things together for the benefit of both peoples,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “We all hope that the Persian nation will soon be freed from the yoke of tyranny. And when that day arrives, Israel and Iran will once again become faithful partners in building a future of prosperity and peace,” he added.
Israel Issues Emergency Readiness Guidelines to Hospitals
In the meantime, Israel’s Health Ministry, in light of the potential for regional escalation, has issued emergency readiness guidelines to hospitals and Magen David Adom, in order to promote a rapid transition from routine to emergency, Israel Hayom reported.
The guidelines emphasize that there is currently no change to the official alert level.
“The lessons of the war and Operation Rising Lion highlighted the need to accelerate transitions from routine to emergency mode,” the document states, while adding that this is a precautionary measure and that the health care system remains at Alert Level B, with no active preparations currently required.
In the event of a shift to Level 4 – Red Alert nationwide, the health care system would immediately activate emergency headquarters, transition to 12-hour shifts, suspend outpatient and elective services and prepare for mass-casualty incidents, the article said.
Hospitals would begin a rapid 50% patient reduction and evacuate visitors where possible, with care relocated to protected areas, including underground facilities.
These readiness plans were put into effect following intelligence information that Supreme Leader Khamenei ordered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to activate “missile cities,” or giant underground caches of ballistic weapons, according to a report in The Telegraph.
“The IRGC’s underground missile cities – which were deliberately kept intact during the 12-day war – are all on high alert,” the paper quoted an informed source as saying.
In addition, Teheran has reportedly turned to foreign militias for support, with roughly 850 Hezbollah, Iraqi militia and other fighters crossing into Iran to bolster the regime’s police forces.
Experts say the move could reflect growing concerns over internal cohesion and loyalty among Iran’s own security services.
The Basij state police and the Revolutionary Guards were built to crush internal dissent under the banner of defending the revolution, and have a history of fierce loyalty. While there are no signs yet of security forces or generals defecting, “these things move very, very quickly when people feel their survival is at stake, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA officer who serves at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,” told the NY Post.
“Once the demonstrations get up into the tens of thousands, and certainly in the hundreds of thousands, it could be a tipping point, because that’s a very large number of people to start shooting at,” the former CIA officer said. “It could conceivably bring units of the regime’s forces to the breaking point. That’s when people make spur of the moment choices.”
“Whether Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias, or the Afghan Fatemiyoun, the function of these proxies would be the same: to fire on Iranians when other Iranians won’t do so.”
In addition to hiring proxy armies to do its dirty work, the regime is now deploying drones to monitor and suppress protests, leading to a sharp spike in casualties, the NY Post reported. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported “surveillance drones have been flying overhead and guiding security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control.”
Tehran is countering the mounting unrest “with battlefield tech more commonly seen in war zones than city streets,” the article noted, adding that “a government turning military drones on its own population is a warning shot to anyone who dares dissent.”
Iran to Hang 26-Year-Old Protester
As protests continue to surge, Iran is expected to carry out its first execution linked to the demonstrations this week, according to human rights groups. Erfan Soltani, 26, is being charged with “waging war against G-d,” a capital crime punishable by death, the NY Post reported.
“His family was informed of the sentence and that it would be carried out on 14 January,” the Iran Human Rights (IHR) said.
Soltani was allegedly denied legal assistance in defending himself, the IHR said. He is among the more than 10,000 people reportedly incarcerated by the regime in the last two weeks for taking part in anti-government protests.
IHR Director Mahmood Moghaddam warned that the death toll is bound to see a spike as Tehran is likely to execute many of those arrested, in order to terrorize protesters.
“The prospect of mass and extrajudicial executions of protesters is serious,” Moghaddam said in a statement. “Under the Responsibility to Protect, the international community has a duty to protect civilian protesters against mass killings by the Islamic Republic and its Revolutionary Guard Corps.” He issued a call for the world to unite behind the demonstrators.
President Trump has warned Tehran that violence against the protesters would be met with a military response from the United States, with the White House confirming early this week that the president was weighing whether or not to bomb Iran.
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Protesters are Being Slaughtered in Iran and Leftist Activists Could Care Less
The following has been excerpted from an article by Iranian citizen Oscar Lohuis, originally published in The Spectator.
Why are the richest and poorest parts of Iran, the most religious and the most secular parts, revolting together? Because this revolution isn’t about the left or right. It is about people wanting to be a nation, rather than an ummah (subjugated people). We want to be citizens, not soldiers of a reactionary Islamist cause.
Iran is a nation wanting its soul back. It is a nation reclaiming the soul of civility, rejecting the worship of Islamic barbarism. This is a national revolution to take back what was stolen from us by Islamists: our history, our culture, our way of life.
I can’t hold back the tears when the Islamic Republic attacks hospitals in Ilam to arrest protesters in their hospital beds, and the “human-rights” mob does not react. How is it possible?
They only seem to worry about hospitals when Hamas stores ammunition in them. But ordinary Iranian citizens? They can’t be bothered. Protesters are being slaughtered and Leftist activists could care less.
The Iranian protesters have made a strategic mistake: they want to be friends with the West. That must be why the anti-West, pro-Palestine mob is silent.
At least Donald Trump has spoken up forcefully and promised the regime will be hit ‘very hard’ if it uses violence against protesters. In gratitude, demonstrators are changing the names of streets in Tehran to ‘Trump Street.’
It does feel like the end might really be near. The Crown Prince has said he is ready to lead the transition to democracy. People chant joyfully, “This is the final battle – Pahlavi will return!”
No one can predict exactly when the regime’s leaders will leave my country, but hopefully it is only a matter of time. How I wish all those who gave their lives fighting the Islamic Republic terror state could see that day!
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Trump Administration Divided on Military Option vs. Diplomacy
In an update on the Iranian crisis this Monday, President Trump said that his administration had received calls from Iran’s leaders the previous day, expressing a readiness for discussions regarding its nuclear activities.
Implying the overture from Iran might be a deception aimed at tabling U.S. military intervention, Trump said “a meeting is being set up” between the two countries, but cautioned that he “may have to act first before any meetings get underway,” as reports of the death toll in Iran continue to mount.
His remarks alluded to a growing debate within the administration over how to respond to the Iranian regime’s slaughter of its citizens and its rigid refusal to give up its nuclear ambitions. While some senior aides favor immediate action, others are urging the President to test Iran’s willingness to negotiate before ordering strikes.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Vice President JD Vance has been among those encouraging the President to first attempt diplomacy, saying “it’s the smartest path forward,” despite acknowledging that Iran poses a serious threat to U.S. interests.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that while President Trump generally prefers diplomatic solutions, he has not ruled out the use of force. “The truth is, with respect to Iran, nobody knows what President Trump is going to do except for President Trump. The world can keep waiting and guessing,” she said.
In a sign that the president might be leaning in the direction of putting military options on hold for the immediate present, Trump released an executive order on Monday announcing that “any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business done with the United States, effective immediately.”
The move was seen by some as a sign that military force would be shelved for now, in favor of increased sanctions and diplomacy. This would be a marked reversal from the repeated pledges President Trump has made in recent days to respond with military reprisals to Teheran’s slaughter of civilian protesters.
Such a reversal would be particularly disappointing to exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah deposed in 1979, and a key Iranian opposition leader. Pahlavi has been passionately urging the Trump administration to support the protesters in Iran using all the powers at the president’s disposal.
He has also been ardently encouraging the protesters to persist in the fight to overthrow the ayatollahs. In his latest online appeal Pahlavi asserted the goal “is no longer merely to come into the streets; the goal is to prepare to seize city centers and hold them.”
He called on “workers and employees in key sectors of the economy, especially transportation, and oil, and gas and energy,” to begin a nationwide strike.
Pahlavi who has a significant following in Iran, with many protesters chanting, ‘This is the final battle – Pahlavi will return!’ has called on the Iranian people to intensify their actions inside the country. He posted online that any institutions responsible for regime propaganda should be regarded as “legitimate targets.”
“Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, you have a choice,” he exhorted: “Stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people – and bear the nation’s lasting shame and condemnation.”
