Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has acknowledged that thousands of people have been killed, “some with the utmost inhumanity”, during a wave of protests that have been brutally suppressed in the country.
The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and grew into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic.
But demonstrations have subsided after the crackdown that rights groups say left more than 3,000 people dead amid an internet blackout that lasted more than a week.
Alarm over the reported death toll in the crackdown has grown as verifying cases remains difficult under strict internet restrictions.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, and more than 22,000 arrests.
Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights said 3,428 protesters had been killed by security forces, but warned the actual toll could be many times higher.
Last week, Iran’s attorney general said prisoners would face harsh sentences. Those arrested included people who “aided rioters and terrorists who attacked security forces and public properties” and “mercenaries who took up arms and spread fear among civilians,” he said.
State media quoted Mohammad Movahedi Azad as saying investigations would be conducted “without clemency, mercy or tolerance.”
“By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists, just as it broke the back of the seditionists,” Khamenei told his supporters in a televised address on Saturday.
Ayatollah blames Donald Trump
Khamenei has accused US President Donald Trump of inciting the protests and blamed him for the subsequent deaths, saying: “We consider the US president criminal because of the victims, damage and slander he has inflicted on the Iranian nation.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to interveneincluding by threatening “very strong action” if Iran were to execute demonstrators. But on Friday, in a social media post, he thanked Tehran’s leaders and said they had called off the mass hangings.
In comments that appeared to respond to Trump, Khamenei said: “We will not drag the country into a war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished,” state media reported.
Iranian authorities have blamed the United States and Israel for the latest wave of demonstrations, saying they fueled a “terrorist operation” that has hijacked peaceful protests over the economy.
Internet monitor Netblocks said on Saturday that “Internet connectivity in Iran remains stagnant, despite a small, short-lived bump in access earlier today as new reports of atrocities emerged.”
People in Iran were reportedly able to send text messages again within the country and to outside numbers, but were still often unable to receive text messages from people abroad.
Rights groups say there have been no verifiable reports of protests in recent days and videos circulating on social media show a heavy security presence in some areas.
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