Deaths from Iran protests reach more than 500, rights group says

Unrest in Iran has killed more than 500 people, a rights group said on Sunday, as Tehran threatened to target US military bases if President Donald Trump carries out threats to intervene on behalf of protesters.

With the Islamic ‍Republic’s clerical establishment facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if force is used on protesters.

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According to its latest figures - from activists inside and outside Iran - US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest.

Iran has not given an official toll and Reuters was unable to independently verify the tolls.

Trump was to be briefed by his officials on Tuesday on options over Iran including military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Washington against “a miscalculation.”

“Let us be clear: in the ⁠case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Authorities intensify crackdown

The protests began on December 28 in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Authorities accuse the US and Israel of fomenting trouble.

The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday.

Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching along a street at night, clapping and chanting. The crowd “has no end nor beginning,” a man is heard saying.

In footage from the northeastern city of Mashhad, smoke can be seen billowing into the night sky from fires in the street, masked protesters, and a road strewn with debris, another video posted on Saturday showed. Explosions could be heard.

Reuters verified the locations.

State TV aired footage of dozens of body bags on the ground at the Tehran coroner’s office on Sunday, saying the dead were victims of events caused by “armed terrorists.”

Three Israeli sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the weekend, said Israel was on a high-alert
footing for the possibility of any ‍US intervention.

An Israeli military official said the protests were an internal Iranian matter, but Israel’s military was monitoring developments and was ready to respond “with power if need be.”

Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June last year, which the United States briefly joined ‍by attacking key nuclear installations. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and an American air ‍base in Qatar.

Iran denounces ‘rioters and terrorists’

While the ⁠Iranian authorities have weathered previous protests, the latest have unfolded with Tehran still recovering from last year’s war and with its regional ‌position weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah since ⁠the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks against Israel.

Iran’s unrest comes as Trump flexes US muscles ‍on the world stage, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and floating the possibility of acquiring Greenland by purchase or military force.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a TV interview, said Israel and the US were masterminding destabilization and that Iran’s enemies had brought in “terrorists ... who ⁠set mosques on fire .... attack banks, and public properties.”

“Families, I ask you: do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” he said, adding that the government was ready to listen to the people and to resolve economic problems.

Iranian state TV broadcast funeral processions in western cities such as Gachsaran and Yasuj for security personnel killed in protests.

State TV said 30 members of the security forces would be buried in the central city of Isfahan and that six more were killed by “rioters” in Kermanshah in the west.

Read more:

Iran says US bases and ships ‘legitimate target’ if attacked

Israel on high alert for possibility of US intervention in Iran, sources say

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