Parisa, a 35-year-old Tehran resident, was walking the streets with a large but peaceful crowd chanting “Death to the dictator” on Friday night when the scene suddenly turned deadly, she said in a series of voice messages from the Iranian capital.
Four security guards swarmed a middle-aged man and his teenage son who were standing in a corner, cheering the crowd and joining in the anti-government chants. The officers opened fire, killing the father, said Parisa, who asked that her last name not be published for fear of reprisals.
The son shouted, his cries mixing with those of the crowd, as some ran away and others began swearing and throwing stones at the security forces. Parisa said she noticed the man bending down to fix his shoe, adding that perhaps security forces thought he was reaching for a weapon. But she didn’t see any.
“Everyone is scared, everyone is anxious, everyone is expecting an increase in violence,” Parisa said. “Today at work all my colleagues were depressed, talking about the size of the guns and the murders they had witnessed.”
“But you know what?” she added. “Everyone continues to come out to protest. »
For the third night in a row, nationwide anti-government protests have rocked Iran, according to witnesses and videos verified by The New York Times, posted on the BBC in Persian and on social media, even as the government intensified its crackdown and the military announced it would take to the streets in response to the unrest.
In Tehran’s Heravi Square, thousands of people marched through the streets, clapping rhythmically and chanting slogans against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, videos verified by The Times showed. “We can’t see the beginning and end of the crowd,” one protester shouted as he moved the camera.
Videos and information about Saturday’s protests were difficult to obtain, arriving hours late as the government maintained an internet blackout imposed on Thursday and blocked calls from abroad. Iran’s Telecommunications Ministry said in a statement that security officials decided to shut down the internet due to “the unfolding situation in the country.” But the number of deaths seems to be increasing.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have not updated casualty numbers since Thursday, when they both reported 28 deaths linked to the protests. But two other Iran-focused human rights groups, the Washington-based HRANA and the Norway-based Iranian Center for Human Rights, each said their death toll was around 70, including minors and around 20 members of the security forces.
The Iranian Center for Human Rights said Rubina Aminian, a 23-year-old student, died Thursday after being shot in the head after leaving her university campus and joining protests in Marivan, a Kurdish town in northwest Iran.
“The situation is extremely worrying; this regime has always prioritized its survival above all else, and it will do so again, at the cost of the lives of the population,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Iranian Center for Human Rights.
Mr. Amiry-Moghaddam also said his organization had received reports from Iranian doctors that hospitals were running out of blood and emergency rooms were overwhelmed with patients with serious injuries, including gunshot wounds and gunshot eye injuries.
Videos verified by The Times showed gunmen firing weapons into empty streets in two Iranian cities over the past two days, in an apparent effort to intimidate residents and potential protesters.
Video showed security forces firing long guns in Zahedan, on Iran’s eastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Anti-government demonstrations reportedly took place there after Friday prayers. Security camera footage showed security forces walking along a main shopping street next to the city’s Grand Mosque, firing shots into adjacent streets after firing tear gas at worshipers exiting the mosque.
Another video, also verified by The Times, showed a group of armed men on motorcycles firing their weapons along a shopping street in the southern town of Kazerun on Saturday. An Iranian rights group reported Thursday that security forces opened fire to disperse a rally in Kazerun.
A crowd chanted “Freedom, freedom, freedom” in Persian and English on Saturday under rainy skies in the capital’s Kaj Square, a video broadcast on the BBC in Persian showed. They appeared undeterred by the stream of threatening remarks from senior government and judicial officials throughout the day.
Mohammad Movahedi Azad, Iran’s attorney general, said Saturday that legal proceedings against the rioters should be pursued “without leniency, without pity or appeasement,” according to Iranian media, and he warned that “all criminals involved” would be considered “enemies of God,” a charge punishable by death.
President Trump, who previously said the United States would intervene militarily if Iran killed protesters, said in a social media post Saturday that “Iran is looking toward FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The United States is ready to help.”
He was briefed in recent days on new options for military strikes in Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Iran’s armed forces said in a statement they would begin taking to the streets to protect “strategic infrastructure and public assets” amid widespread destruction and burning of public and government properties, according to footage broadcast by Iranian state television.
The protests, now in their second week, have included large-scale peaceful marches with a sometimes festive atmosphere: crowds of men, women and families singing and chanting slogans. There were also angry riots, mainly men blocking roads with bonfires and burning municipal and government buildings, banks, mosques and police stations, according to videos broadcast by Iranian state television, the Persian BBC and social media.
Iranian state media said Farajollah Shooshtari, deputy governor for security and politics of Semnan province and son of a top Revolutionary Guard commander, was killed during the protests.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani said in an interview on state television that “rioters” attacked and burned mosques, hospitals, banks, security force headquarters, ambulances and firefighting equipment.
“We were going to put out the fires and they were attacking our vehicles and fire trucks,” Mr Zakani said. “They wanted to create chaos in the city and project a false perception to our enemies. »
Two videos reviewed by The Times showed what appeared to be dozens of bodies wrapped in sheets or black bags at a forensic clinic in the Kahrizak district, south of Tehran. Relatives could be heard crying in the videos as they identified their loved ones’ bodies. The videos do not make it clear whether the victims were the result of the violence that occurred during demonstrations in Tehran on Friday evening.
On Saturday evening, two Tehran residents said many neighborhoods had power outages and lights on highways and main roads were turned off. Residents, who did not want their names published for fear of reprisals, said Revolutionary Guard officers armed with machine guns and paramilitary members armed with handguns roamed the streets in large numbers, stopping cars and passers-by.
Leily Nikounazar contributed to reporting from Belgium, and Aurélien Breeden from Paris. Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt And Edward Wong also contributed to the reporting.
