Iranian Killed at Memorial for Slain Protesters

A person holds a placard showing late Iranian woman Mahsa Amini with a message reading "woman, life, freedom" outside the Iranian embassy in Rome, Italy, 10 December 2022, following the execution of a protester in Iran. (EPA)
A person holds a placard showing late Iranian woman Mahsa Amini with a message reading "woman, life, freedom" outside the Iranian embassy in Rome, Italy, 10 December 2022, following the execution of a protester in Iran. (EPA)
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Iranian Killed at Memorial for Slain Protesters

A person holds a placard showing late Iranian woman Mahsa Amini with a message reading "woman, life, freedom" outside the Iranian embassy in Rome, Italy, 10 December 2022, following the execution of a protester in Iran. (EPA)
A person holds a placard showing late Iranian woman Mahsa Amini with a message reading "woman, life, freedom" outside the Iranian embassy in Rome, Italy, 10 December 2022, following the execution of a protester in Iran. (EPA)

Iran's security forces fired on a crowd in the Kurdish-populated west on Saturday, killing a 22-year-old, a rights group said, more than 100 days after the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini sparked nationwide protests. 

The country has been rocked by demonstrations since Amini died in custody on September 16 following her arrest for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women. 

Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said the man was killed in a cemetery in the city of Javanroud as residents marked the end of a 40-day mourning period for slain protesters. 

Security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas, killing Borhan Eliasi and wounding eight others, Hengaw said, in a report that could not be independently verified. 

Two of those wounded were said to be in critical condition. 

Activists have used social media to call for gatherings in Tehran and other cities to protest the worsening economic situation. 

The sanctions-hit country replaced its central bank chief on Thursday, state media said, after the rial shed nearly a third of its value on the parallel market in the past two months. 

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported small gatherings in the capital and the central cities of Isfahan and Najafabad, sharing videos of protesters chanting anti-regime slogans. AFP was unable to immediately verify the footage. 

On Friday, hundreds took to the streets of the southeastern city of Zahedan, which has seen weekly protests since the security forces killed more than 90 people in the city on September 30, in what has been dubbed "Bloody Friday". 

Footage shared by protest monitor 1500tasvir and verified by AFP shows the crowd in the Sistan-Baluchistan provincial capital chanting "Death to the dictator", taking aim at Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. 

Sistan-Baluchistan, an impoverished province on Iran's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, had been the site of often deadly violence even before protests erupted over Amini's death.  

At least 14,000 people have been arrested since the nationwide unrest began, the United Nations said last month. HRANA has put the figure at 19,000.  

Retrial for death row inmate 

Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest, including members of the security forces, and thousands arrested.  

In an updated death toll issued Tuesday, Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said 476 protesters have been killed so far.  

Earlier in December, Iran executed two people in connection with the protests.  

The judiciary's Mizan Online news website reported that the supreme court has ordered the retrial of a third death row inmate sentenced over the nationwide protests.  

Foreign-based rights groups had reported Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh was sentenced to death for tearing down street railings and setting fire to rubbish bins and tyres.  

Mizan said the 26-year-old had been granted a retrial.  

"The appeal against the decision issued by a Tehran Revolutionary Court was upheld in the Supreme Court," a statement said, adding that Nourmohammad-Zadeh's case had been referred to a different court to be tried again.  

His lawyer, Hamed Ahmadi, told the ILNA news agency on December 21 that Nourmohammad-Zadeh had been sentenced to death after being convicted of the religious law offense of "moharebeh", or "enmity against God".  

Nourmohammad-Zadeh is the third person reportedly on death row to be granted a retrial after Kurdish rapper Saman Seydi, also known as Saman Yasin, and Mahan Sadrat.  

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in public on December 12 after being sentenced to death by a court in Iran's second city Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife.  

Four days earlier, Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed for wounding a member of the security forces.  

The judiciary has said nine others have been sentenced to death, while IHR said this week that dozens of protesters face charges that can carry the death penalty. 



Larijani Calls Trump, Netanyahu ‘Main Killers of People of Iran’ as Russia Slams Threats

Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)
Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)
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Larijani Calls Trump, Netanyahu ‘Main Killers of People of Iran’ as Russia Slams Threats

Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)
Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)

A senior Iranian official responded Tuesday to US President Donald Trump’s latest threat to intervene in deadly protests, saying that the US and Israel will be the ones responsible for the death of Iranian civilians.

Shortly after Trump’s social media post urging Iranians to “take over” government institutions, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted on X: “We declare the names of the main killers of the people of Iran: 1- Trump 2- Netanyahu.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry called Trump's threats “categorically unacceptable.”

The ministry warned in a statement that any such strikes would have “disastrous consequences” for the situation in the Middle East and global security.

It also criticized what it called “brazen attempts to blackmail Iran’s foreign partners by raising trade tariffs.”

The statement noted that the protests in Iran had been triggered by social and economic problems resulting from Western sanctions.

It also denounced “hostile external forces” for trying to “exploit the resulting growing social tension to destabilize and destroy the Iranian state” and charged that “specially trained and armed provocateurs acting on instructions from abroad” sought to provoke violence.

The ministry voiced hope that the situation in Iran will gradually stabilize and advised Russian citizens in the country not to visit crowded places.


Satellite Internet Provider Starlink Now Offering Free Service Inside Iran

Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)
Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)
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Satellite Internet Provider Starlink Now Offering Free Service Inside Iran

Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)
Protesters participate in a demonstration supporting protesters in Iran, in front of the US Consulate, Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP)

The satellite internet provider Starlink now offers free service in Iran, activists said Wednesday.

Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who has helped get the units into Iran, told The Associated Press that the free service had started. Other activists also confirmed in messages online that the service was free.

Starlink has been the only way for Iranians to communicate with the outside world since authorities shut down the internet Thursday night as nationwide protests swelled and they began a bloody crackdown against demonstrators.

Starlink itself did not immediately acknowledge the decision.


Trump Warns of ‘Very Strong Action’ if Iran Hangs Protesters

 In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
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Trump Warns of ‘Very Strong Action’ if Iran Hangs Protesters

 In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

US President Donald Trump warned of unspecified "very strong action" if Iranian authorities go ahead with threatened hangings of some protesters, with Tehran calling American warnings a "pretext for military intervention".

International outrage has built over the crackdown that a rights group said has likely killed thousands during protests posing one of the biggest challenges yet to Iran's clerical leadership.

Iran's UN mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington's "playbook" would "fail again".

"US fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention," the post said.

Iranian authorities have insisted they had regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since.

Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now surpassed the five-day mark.

New videos on social media, with locations verified by AFP, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.

Trump -- who earlier told the protesters in Iran that "help is on its way" -- said Tuesday in a CBS News interview that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters.

Tehran prosecutors have said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of "moharebeh", or "waging war against God", against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.

"We will take very strong action if they do such a thing," said the American leader, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention.

"When they start killing thousands of people -- and now you're telling me about hanging. We'll see how that's going to work out for them," Trump said.

The US State Department on its Farsi language X account said 26-year-old protestor Erfan Soltani had been sentenced to be executed on Wednesday.

"Erfan is the first protester to be sentenced to death, but he won't be the last," the State Department said, adding more than 10,600 Iranians had been arrested.

Rights group Amnesty International called on Iran to immediately halt all executions, including Soltani's.

Trump urged on his Truth Social platform for Iranians to "KEEP PROTESTING", adding: "I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY."

It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.

- 'Rising casualties' -

European nations also signaled their anger over the crackdown, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors, as did the European Union.

"The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying," said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions against those responsible.

Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.

"The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands," IHR's director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.

Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies.

Authorities in Tehran have announced a mass funeral ceremony in the capital on Wednesday for the "martyrs" of recent days.

Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.

"On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran's Sarsabz neighborhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets," he told AFP in Iraq.

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's ousted shah, called on the military to stop suppressing protests.

"You are the national military of Iran, not the military of the Islamic Republic," he said in a statement.

- 'Serious challenge -

The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a "warning" to the United States.

In power since 1989 and now aged 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which forced him to go into hiding.

Analysts have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership controls, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is charged with safeguarding the revolution.

Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Center for International Studies, told AFP the protests represented a "serious challenge" to the country, but it was unclear if they would unseat the leadership, pointing to "the sheer depth and resilience of Iran's repressive apparatus".