Iran protests appear to abate after deadly crackdown

Iran’s deadly crackdown appears to have largely quelled the protests for now, according to a rights group and residents; State media reported more arrests under the shadow of US threats to intervene if the killings continued.

After President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Iran in support of protesters, fears of a US attack have receded since Wednesday, when Trump said he had been told killings in the crackdown had eased.

US allies including Saudi Arabia and Qatar are engaged in intense diplomacy with Washington this week to prevent a US attack, a Gulf official said, warning of consequences for the broader region that would ultimately impact the US.

Trump is closely monitoring the situation on the ground, the White House said Thursday, adding that the president and his team have warned of “serious consequences” if killings linked to the crackdown on Tehran continue.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump understands that 800 planned executions have been halted and that the president “keeps all options on the table.”

The protests broke out on December 28 over soaring inflation in Iran, whose economy has been crippled by sanctions, and later turned into one of the biggest challenges yet for the religious order that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Many people living in Tehran said the capital had been quiet since Sunday as the flow of information from Iran was blocked due to an internet outage.

They said drones flew over the city on Thursday or Friday, where they saw no signs of protests.

Iranian Kurdish rights group Hengaw stated that no protest meetings have been held since Sunday and said that “the security environment remains extremely restrictive.”

“Our independent sources confirm that there is a heavy military and security presence in cities and towns where protests have previously taken place, as well as in various places where large demonstrations have not occurred,” Norway-based Hengaw told Reuters. he said.

Another resident of a northern city on the Caspian Sea said the streets appeared quiet.

However, there were signs of unrest in some areas.

Hengaw reported that a female nurse was killed by direct fire from government forces during protests in Karaj, western Iran.

State-run Tasnim news outlet reported that rioters set fire to a local education office in Falavarjan District, central Isfahan province, on Thursday.

An elderly resident of a town in Iran’s northwestern region, where many Iranian Kurds live and which has been the focus of many of the largest flare-ups, said the protests were sporadic but not as intense.

Describing the violent scenes at the beginning of the protests, the woman said, “I have never seen such scenes before.”

State-owned Press TV quoted Iran’s police chief as saying calm had been restored across the country.

The death toll has risen marginally since Wednesday, reaching 2,677 people, including 2,478 protesters and 163 people identified as government loyalists, US-based human rights group HRANA reported.

​An Iranian official told the news agency this week that around 2,000 people were killed in the unrest.

The casualty figures dwarf the death toll from previous bouts of unrest that were suppressed by the state.

Iranian authorities have described the unrest as the most violent ever and accused foreign enemies of inciting it and gunmen they describe as terrorists of targeting security forces and carrying out other attacks.

Also on Friday, state television broadcast the funerals of members of the security forces in Semnan in northern Iran and Semirom in central Iran.