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Iranian authorities have arrested key members of the protest movement that has rocked the country over the last two weeks, the national police chief said, as Washington and Tehran threaten each other over the prospect of US intervention in the Islamic republic.
“Last night, significant arrests were made of the main elements in the riots, who, God willing, will be punished after going through legal procedures,” the police chief, Ahmad-Reza Radan, told state TV on Sunday, without specifying the number of those arrested.
Iran’s attorney general had said earlier that those who were caught protesting, or even helping protesters, could be charged with being “an enemy of God” – which is punished with the death penalty.
The protest movement in Iran, now in its second week, is the most significant unrest the country has experienced in years. Though triggered initially by a sudden slide in the country’s currency, protesters soon demanded political reform and called for the downfall of the government.
Iran’s regime has weathered mass protest movements before, but analysts say the current unrest is happening as the government is weakened by an economic crisis, and in the aftermath of its summer war with Israel.
Authorities cut off internet access in the country on Thursday, imposing a nearly impenetrable nationwide blackout. Human rights groups said Iranian authorities had used the cover of the internet shutdown to expand their crackdown against protesters, using deadly force and live ammunition to disperse demonstrations.
At least 116 people have been killed in violence surrounding the demonstrations, while 2,600 have been arrested, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. “Examination of the causes of death shows that most victims were killed by live ammunition or pellet gunfire, predominantly from close range,” the rights group said.
Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if authorities kill protesters, a threat he appeared to renew on Saturday night.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!,” the US president said on the Truth Social platform. 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, but had not yet decided on his course of action.
US senators echoed Trump’s call, with Sen Lindsey Graham saying on social media that Iranians’ “long nightmare is soon coming to a close”.
Israeli officials said they were on high alert for any US intervention in Iran, with Israeli media reporting that they are remaining silent on the issue to avoid allowing Iranian authorities casting the protest movement as foreign-backed.
The US threats quickly sparked a backlash from Iranian officials, with the speaker of the parliament warning that the US and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if the US 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 Qalibaf said.
Previously, when the US struck Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites in June, Iran carried out a strike on a US military base in Qatar. The strike was seen as mostly symbolic as it was telegraphed and did not lead to any deaths among US military personnel.
Despite the crackdown, protests continued overnight on Saturday and more were expected on Sunday. Videos showed what appeared to be thousands of protesters in northern Tehran, banging pots and chanting protest slogans. In Mashhad, the birthplace of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khameini, protesters appeared in videos facing off with police, creating roadblocks and lighting fires.
Rights groups have said that while proper, exhaustive documentation is near-impossible due to the communications blackout in the country, there are increasing reports of soaring death tolls among protesters. The Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Sunday that it had received credible reports from witnesses that hundreds of protesters had been killed in recent days.
Messages and videos trickle out of Iran sporadically, mainly ferried by activists who have Starlink satellite internet services.
A protester in the central Iranian city of Sari, according to messages forwarded via the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, said security forces had placed the city under complete martial law.
“A large number of security forces armed with military weapons have set up checkpoints. Every car is being stopped, even if there are just two people inside. They are telling everyone that anyone who is outside will be shot,” the protester said.
An Iranian activist abroad told the Guardian their cousin managed to call them via starlink on Saturday night in a panic. She was fleeing a protest in the Andarzgoo neighbourhood in Tehran after authorities started using “military weapons” on unarmed protesters, describing security forces opening fire on men, women, and children at close distance.
In videos forwarded to the Guardian, large crowds can be seen streaming through the streets with what appears to be teargas around them. A second video shows the protester fleeing, with the sound of gunshots heard in the background as she repeats the word “shameless”.
A video verified by the Hengaw human rights group shows several bodies of what the group said were protesters killed by authorities in a warehouse in the Kahrizak area of Tehran. The organisation said the warehouse was a facility adjacent to a morgue and was being used as an overflow facility as the morgue was too overcrowded. Iranian state media blamed the death on protesters.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who previously offered to enter into dialogue with protesters, appeared to adopt a harder line on Sunday.
“People have concerns, we should sit with them and if it is our duty, we should resolve their concerns,” Pezeshkian said. “But the higher duty is not to allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society.”
While it faces protests at home, Iran’s government has become increasingly concerned about a possible strike from the US or Israel.
