Huge anti-government protests in Tehran and other Iranian cities, videos show
According to videos, large crowds of protesters march in Iran’s capital and other cities; This action is said to be the biggest show of force by opponents of religious institutions in years.
Footage confirmed by BBC Persian shows peaceful demonstrations in the cities of Tehran and Mashhad on Thursday evening that were not dispersed by security forces.
A monitoring group later reported a nationwide internet outage.
In the footage, voices of protesters can be heard calling for the overthrow of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the return of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late former shah, who called on his supporters to take to the streets.
It was the 12th consecutive day of unrest sparked by anger over the collapse of Iran’s currency and spreading to more than 100 cities and towns in Iran’s 31 provinces, according to human rights groups.
The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) said at least 34 protesters, including five children, and eight security personnel were killed and another 2,270 protesters were arrested.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights watchdog (IHR) said at least 45 protesters, including eight children, were killed by security forces.
BBC Persian confirmed the deaths and identities of 22 people, while Iranian officials reported the deaths of six security personnel.
Thursday evening, Videos posted on social media and verified by BBC Persian showed a large crowd of protesters marching along a major road in Mashhadin the northeast of the country.
Slogans “Long live the Shah” and “This is the last war! Pahlavi will return” can be heard. At one point, several men are seen climbing onto the overpass and removing security cameras attached to it.
In the images sent to BBC Persian from the north of the capital, Another large crowd can be heard chanting “This is the last war! Pahlavi will return.”. Elsewhere in the north, protesters were seen chanting “Dishonorable” and “Don’t be afraid, we are all together” slogans after clashes with security forces.
Other videos shown Protesters chanted “Death to the dictator” – A reference to Khamenei in the central city of Isfahan; “Long live the Shah” in the northern city of Babol and “Don’t be afraid, we are all together” In the northwestern city of Tabriz.
Footage sent to BBC Persian in the western city of Dezful showed a large crowd of protesters. security personnel are seen opening fire from a central square.
The evening protests took place shortly after Reza Pahlavi, whose father was ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and lives in Washington, D.C., called on Iranians to “take to the streets and shout your demands as a united front.”
In a post on X, Pahlavi said that “millions of Iranians demanded their freedom tonight” and described the protesters as “brave citizens”.
He thanked US President Donald Trump for “holding the regime to account” and called on European leaders to do the same.
Pahlavi also called for protests to continue from 20:00 local time (16:30 GMT) on Friday night.
Iranian state media downplayed the extent of Thursday’s unrest. In some cases, they completely denied that protests were taking place, posting videos of empty streets.
Meanwhile, internet watchdog NetBlocks said its measurements showed Iran was “in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout.”
“The incident follows a series of digital censorship measures targeting nationwide protests and impeding the public’s right to communication at a critical moment,” it warned, citing previous connectivity losses in various cities.
In the early hours of the day, Footage from Lomar, a small town in the western province of Ilam, showed crowds chanting: “Cannons, tanks, fireworks, mullahs must go.” – a reference to the religious institution. In another photo, people were seen throwing papers into the air in front of a bank that had apparently been broken into.
Other videos showed many shuttered stores It is seen in the Kurdish-dominated cities and towns of Ilam, as well as in Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces.
This comes after exiled Kurdish opposition groups called for a general strike in response to a deadly crackdown on protests in the region.
According to Kurdish human rights group Hengaw, at least 17 protesters were killed by security forces in Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan during the unrest, most of whom belonged to the Kurdish or Lor ethnic minorities.
Violent clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in many cities and towns in western Iran on Wednesday, as well as other areas.
The IHR said it was the deadliest day of the unrest, with 13 protesters confirmed dead across the country.
“The evidence shows that the scope of the repression is becoming more severe and more comprehensive with each passing day,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the group’s director.
Hengaw said two protesters were shot dead by security forces in Khoshk-e Bijar in the northern Gilan province on Wednesday night.
Fars, Iran’s semi-official news agency close to the Revolutionary Guard, reported that three police officers were also killed on Wednesday.
The statement said two people were shot dead by gunmen among a group of “rebels” in the southwestern town of Lordegan, while the third was stabbed to death “during efforts to control unrest” in the Malard district in western Tehran.
XUS President Donald Trump on Thursday repeated his threat to take military action if Iranian authorities kill protesters.
“I told them if they start killing people like they did during their riots — there would be a lot of riots — if they did that, we were going to hit them very hard,” he said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
Separately, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said Iran’s economy was in “good shape”.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Minnesota on Thursday, he added:[President Trump] He doesn’t want them to hurt any more protesters. This is a tense moment.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had previously called on security forces to exercise “extreme restraint” when intervening in peaceful protests. “Any form of violence or coercive behavior should be avoided,” the statement said.
Khamenei, who has ultimate power in Iran, said on Saturday that authorities should “talk to the protesters” but that “the rioters must be put in their place.”
The protests began on December 28, when shopkeepers took to the streets of Tehran to express their anger at the sharp decline in the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, against the US dollar on the open market.
The rial fell to a record low last year and inflation soared to 40 percent as sanctions imposed on Iran’s nuclear program squeezed an economy weakened by government mismanagement and corruption.
University students soon joined the protests and the protests began to spread to other cities; The crowd was often heard chanting slogans criticizing the clergy.
A woman in Tehran said in a message to the BBC through a UK-based activist that the protests were caused by despair.
“We live in limbo,” he said. “I feel like I’m suspended in the air, with neither wings to migrate nor hope of reaching my goals here. Life here has become unbearable.”
Another said he protested because his dreams had been “stolen” by the religious establishment and he wanted people to know that “we still have a voice to shout at, a fist to punch in their face.”
A woman in the western city of Ilam said she knew young people from families affiliated with the organization who had joined the protests. “My friend, whose father is a well-known name in the intelligence agency, and his three sisters are participating without their father’s knowledge,” he said.
The protests have been the most widespread since the uprising sparked by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. According to human rights groups, more than 550 people have been killed by security forces and more than 20,000 detained in several months.
The biggest protests since the Islamic revolution took place in 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets of major cities following a disputed presidential election. Dozens of opposition supporters were killed and thousands detained in the ensuing crackdown.
