DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy reached the two-week mark Sunday, as the death toll in violence surrounding the demonstrations reached at least 116 people killed, activists said. With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult, but activists reported further detentions as well.
According to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 116 and over 2,600 others have been detained. The agency said it had been accurate in multiple rounds of previous unrest in Iran. The report said Iranian state TV has been reporting security force casualties while portraying control over the nation, without discussing dead demonstrators and increasingly referring to them as “terrorists.”
The Iranian authorities’ messages have also included warnings of severe penalties for those involved. Tehran escalated its threats Saturday, with Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anyone taking part in protests would be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge. Iranian state television said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.
In the statement aired on state television, prosecutors were instructed: “Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country.” The statement also said proceedings must be conducted “without leniency, compassion or indulgence.” The report said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown despite U.S. warnings.
Outside Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump offered support for the protesters in a post on social media, writing, “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” The report said The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, reported Saturday night that Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran but had not made a final decision. The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”
On the ground, reporting described an information environment shaped by disruption and competing images. Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Iranian state TV reported that schools and universities held online classes, and it repeatedly aired pro-government demonstrations while displaying a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr,” a work associated with Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. The report said the song has also been used in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair after the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.
Iranian state television and semiofficial outlets also aired video of alleged unrest. The report said an online video verified by The Associated Press showed protests Friday in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street; a man chanted “Death to Khamenei!” Semiofficial Fars released surveillance camera footage it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan, including a protester appearing to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound. Semiofficial Tasnim also reported arrests it described as “operational terrorist teams,” and it claimed authorities detained nearly 200 people from them, along with describing weapons including firearms, grenades and gasoline bombs. The report said state television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom.
Activists and supporters continued to call for further demonstrations. The report said Reza Pahlavi, an exiled crown prince who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked in a latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday. Pahlavi urged protesters to carry Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as your own.” The report said criticism of Pahlavi’s support and from Israel has existed in the past, particularly after the 12-day war, and that demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, though it was not clear whether this was support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The protests began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which the report said trades at over 1.4 million to $1. It said the economy has been squeezed by international sanctions levied in part over Iran’s nuclear program, and that the protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy. Airlines have also adjusted service; Austrian Airlines suspended its flights to Iran “as a precautionary measure” through Monday, while Turkish Airlines canceled 17 flights to three cities in Iran.
Concern has also centered on the likelihood of a crackdown. Ali Rahmani, the son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi who is imprisoned in Iran, said in reference to a 2019 protest that security forces killed hundreds “so we can only fear the worst.” Rahmani added, “They are fighting, and losing their lives, against a dictatorial regime.”
Associated Press writers Oleg Cetinic in Paris and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.