Iran Protest Crackdown

Amid nationwide protests, Iranian security forces have been accused of killing young demonstrators — including 23‑year‑old fashion student Rubina Aminian, reportedly shot in the head and buried roadside, and 19‑year‑old amateur boxer Sepehr Ebrahimi — while distraught families say they have been forced to search overcrowded morgues and retrieve bodies piled on top of one another. Human Rights Activists News Agency reported at least 6,126 killed (plus 214 government‑affiliated forces and 49 civilians) with thousands more deaths under investigation, family sources told CBS they fear 12,000–20,000 dead, and relatives have publicly blamed Iran’s leaders and security services for the killings.

The article reports that after nationwide anti-regime protests beginning in late December and a lethal crackdown that rights groups say has killed thousands, Iran’s leadership is mounting a coordinated state-media effort to deny security-force responsibility and pin the bloodshed on 'terrorists' allegedly trained by the United States and Israel. A new nightly IRIB program, 'Eyewitness,' features accounts like that of journalist Fatemeh Faramarzi, who describes being hit with shotgun pellets and insists her attacker could only have been a foreign-guided terrorist, echoing the official line. Amnesty International’s Raha Bahreini calls this a 'long-standing pattern' of broadcasting forced or false statements to blame non-state actors, saying geolocated videos and eyewitness accounts instead show only regime forces firing live rounds into crowds of unarmed demonstrators. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly blamed President Donald Trump and 'enemy agents' for 'thousands' of deaths, while the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency now reports 5,002 confirmed fatalities, underscoring both the scale of the crackdown and the regime’s effort to reshape global perceptions amid an ongoing internet blackout. For U.S. policymakers, the narrative war complicates decisions on sanctions, international justice referrals, and any potential U.S. response to Tehran’s repression.

Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi called President Trump’s claim that Tehran halted or canceled the executions of “over 800” detained protesters “completely false,” saying no such judicial decision exists and suggesting the figure may have come from the foreign ministry while stressing the judiciary does not take instructions from foreign powers. The White House and Trump insist his warnings spared detainees, even as he threatened “crushing” retaliation and announced a U.S. “armada” en route, amid disputed activist casualty counts in the thousands and growing international concern over possible wider regional escalation.

The Trump administration is preparing to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals to Iran on a charter flight from Arizona as early as Sunday, the first known U.S. deportation flight to the country in decades and the first since Trump threatened Tehran over its bloody protest crackdown. Lawyers and relatives say the group includes at least two gay men with pending asylum appeals who fled likely death sentences after arrests by Iran’s morality police, and who now fear execution if returned to a regime where homosexuality is punishable by death and thousands of protesters have reportedly been killed in recent weeks. One man’s family says he has lived in the U.S. since arriving as a minor, has U.S.‑citizen children, and was picked up by ICE despite years of regular check‑ins on an old removal order for non‑violent offenses. The deportations come as Trump publicly calls Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “a sick man,” labels Iran “the worst place to live anywhere in the world,” urges Iranians to keep protesting and says U.S. airstrikes remain possible, underscoring a sharp disconnect between the administration’s human‑rights rhetoric and its enforcement choices. Advocates are rushing to federal court to try to halt the flight, arguing that many of those on the manifest have never received full, meaningful asylum hearings before being sent back into a country where they could be jailed or killed.

A rights group says Iran has sentenced a young conscript, identified as Javid Khales, to death after he allegedly refused an order to shoot demonstrators during the latest wave of nationwide anti‑regime protests spanning late 2025 into early 2026. The Iran Human Rights Society reports Khales was immediately arrested on the spot when he would not fire on crowds and is now held in Esfahan prison, with no public details on his trial or access to counsel. The group warns his case exemplifies a broader pattern of 'summary trials' and accelerated executions that judiciary officials have openly endorsed as they vow to resolve protest‑related cases as fast as possible. The reported sentence comes amid thousands of arrests, large but hard‑to‑verify protest death tolls, and a near‑total internet shutdown that activists say is designed both to disrupt organizing and to hide the scale of repression. Rights advocates argue Khales’ treatment is intended to terrify other rank‑and‑file security personnel into 'absolute obedience' and signals a potential new wave of judicial killings.

The report says Iranian authorities have deployed convoys of armored pickups mounted with heavy machine guns and staffed by foreign proxy fighters across Tehran, turning parts of the capital into fortified zones amid a deadly, weeks‑long protest wave. Video obtained by Fox and described by the exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran purportedly shows Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces operating under IRGC commanders, firing DShK and other large‑caliber weapons from Toyota trucks as they guard government buildings, state media facilities and key intersections. Ali Safavi of NCRI claims the regime has flown in at least 5,000 foreign fighters and that nightly street battles pit protesters against special units, with HRANA reporting 4,519 confirmed deaths, more than 5,800 serious injuries and over 26,000 arrests nationwide since demonstrations began on Dec. 28 over economic collapse and opposition to clerical rule. Safavi also alleges IRGC units attacked a hospital in Gorgan, killed wounded patients and secretly stored at least 76 bodies in a warehouse to bury them without family consent, accusations that have not been independently verified. The escalation, coming under an ongoing internet blackout, underscores how Tehran is leaning on its regional militant network to hold the capital—an approach closely watched in Washington as the U.S. weighs additional sanctions and signals that further violence against protesters could trigger stronger action.

After initially inviting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to the Davos summit, the World Economic Forum said on X it has withdrawn the invitation—saying the “tragic loss of lives of civilians in Iran” makes it inappropriate for the government to be represented—after pressure from advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran. Human rights group HRANA reports 624 demonstrations, at least 24,669 arrests and 3,919 confirmed deaths (including 3,685 protesters and 25 minors) with nearly 9,000 additional deaths under investigation, and the Trump White House has signaled that “all options remain on the table” as it weighs possible military responses.

A 34‑second video of an Iranian refugee in Toronto lighting a cigarette from a burning photo of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—an act that can carry the death penalty inside Iran—has gone viral worldwide and spawned copycat demonstrations across Europe, Israel and the United States. Filmed Jan. 7, one day before Tehran imposed a near‑total internet blackout, the clip shows the woman unveiled, smoking in public and torching Khamenei’s image, defying three taboos at once and earning her the online moniker “cigarette girl.” Protesters abroad have begun recreating the gesture at rallies, using Khamenei posters to light their own cigarettes as Iran intensifies a crackdown that activists say has killed thousands and as President Trump publicly weighs possible military action and further sanctions. Iranian state media have announced waves of arrests and seizures of Starlink satellite gear, while skeptics online debate whether the original moment was spontaneous or staged—underscoring how viral imagery, AI manipulation fears and brutal repression are colliding in the latest phase of Iran’s uprising. For U.S. audiences, the episode illustrates both the reach of diaspora activism and how seemingly small acts of defiance can become global flashpoints in debates over how Washington should respond to Iran’s crackdown.

With a decision on possible U.S. military action reportedly put on pause, the administration has instead imposed new Treasury sanctions on several senior Iranian security officials. The Treasury singled out Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s national security council, accusing him of coordinating a nationwide protest crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands.

France’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jérôme Bonnafont, says Paris has “very strongly” condemned Iran’s increasingly violent crackdown on nationwide protests and is considering providing satellite communication terminals operated by French firm Eutelsat to help Iranians bypass a near‑total internet shutdown. In an interview, he highlighted existing French and EU sanctions on Iran’s police and more than 200 officials and pointed to a fresh G‑7 statement — including the U.S. — warning of additional restrictive measures if Tehran continues its repression. The potential satellite support would mirror earlier Starlink debates by effectively punching a hole in regime censorship and could deepen Iran–West tensions if implemented. Bonnafont sidestepped whether France will back Israel’s push to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization at the EU level, instead stressing broader pressure and messaging to both the regime and the Iranian public. He also echoed long‑standing French calls for greater European defense “autonomy” within NATO, as the Trump administration keeps pressing allies to carry more of the security burden.