Demonstrators raged in the streets of Iran into Saturday morning, defying an escalating crackdown by authorities against the growing protest movement.
An internet shutdown imposed by the authorities on Thursday has largely cut the protesters off from the rest of the world, but videos that trickled out of the country showed thousands of people in the streets of Tehran. They chanted: “Death to Khamenei,” in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and: “Long live the shah.”
Crowds of protesters marched through the streets of Mashhad as fires burned around them, a show of defiance in the home town of Khamenei, who has condemned the protesters as “vandals” and blamed the US for fanning the flames of dissent.
…
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tarish Arg area [a wealthy neighbourhood in Tehran],” a protester in Tehran told the Guardian via sporadic text messages sent via Starlink. The protester said many people had been shot at across the city, adding: “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
…
Another activist in Tehran [said] that they had witnessed security forces firing live ammunition at protesters and saw a “very high” number killed, while human rights activists said the claims of police brutality were consistent with testimony they had been given.
…
The Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi warned […] that security forces could be preparing to commit a “massacre under the cover of a sweeping communications blackout”, and said she had already received reports of hundreds of people being treated for eye injuries at a single Tehran hospital.
…
A video verified by Iran Human Rights group showed distressed family members looking through a pile of bodies in Ghadir hospital in Tehran on Thursday. The rights group said that the bodies were of protesters killed by authorities.
…
[Edit typo.]
ACAB all around the world.
The sooner the Iranian people topple their government, the better.
I always worry about who and what group fills the power vacuum. Is there any info on who might fill that role if it comes to that in Iran?
Probably depends on who you ask, but my understanding is that there is at least relatively significant support for the reinstatement of Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son and exiled crown prince of the last shah. To my knowledge, his calls for protest and overthrow aren’t the inciting incident for the currently-occurring protests (the economic catastrophe(s) Iran is going through have that plenty covered), but those calls to action have at least been been a contributing factor and rallying point for the ongoing protests.
Man, that guy is way too close to the US and Israel.
the eldest son and exiled crown Prince of the last Shah
Oh fuck that.
