Iran’s army has vowed to safeguard “strategic” infrastructure and called on citizens to foil “enemy plots” after 48 hours of escalating protests and violent clashes.
The army issued the statement on Saturday as the Islamic republic battled to contain the most serious domestic threat to the regime in years.
Iranian state television reported that three police officers were killed overnight in attacks on security forces in Shiraz and surrounding areas, as demonstrators took to the streets in defiance of a government crackdown.
State media accused “armed groups” of attacking “public and private property in several provinces, causing extensive damage”, including mosques.
Videos posted on social media purported to show crowds gathering in Tehran overnight chanting anti-regime slogans, despite warnings from authorities that protesters would not be afforded any “legal leniency”.
It was not possible to verify the videos as an internet blackout that has cut off the republic from the outside world stretched into a third day. Diplomats fear that the regime, which has a history of crushing protests, could use the blackout to harden its crackdown.
In its statement, the army accused Israel and “hostile terrorist groups” of seeking to “undermine the country’s public security”.
Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, the prosecutor-general, on Saturday warned that “all criminals are enemies in this matter,” while urging the courts to deal with them quickly and without leniency
“They should not say they were tricked because they were given the necessary warnings about the enemy’s goals.” He also warned Iranians to be careful about social media postings.
The protests, which began in late December, escalated markedly this week.
State TV said several security officials were killed in Tehran on Thursday and that two police officers died in the religious city of Qom. Another two members of the security forces lost their lives in the city of Shushtar.
A local prosecutor and four members of the security forces were killed “during riots” in the northeastern town of Esfarayen on Thursday, it added. Several members of the Basij, a volunteer force affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, were also killed, a Press TV report on Saturday said.
But it also quoted Iran’s national police spokesman saying that “calm” had returned to cities. On Saturday, state TV showed pro-government rallies taking place in cities across the country.
Tasnim, a news agency affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, cited security sources saying nearly 200 “terrorist leaders” were arrested and grenades, Molotov cocktails and other weapons had been seized from their homes.
It added that six members of the security services had been killed in Fars province and 120 injured over the past few days.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said at least 28 protesters had been killed in the crackdown by January 3.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a foreign-based group, said on Friday that the death toll had reached 65, including 14 security forces. Scores of people have been wounded and arrested, rights group said.
In a speech on Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused protesters of acting on behalf of US President Donald Trump and vowed his government would not back down.
The regime has accused foreign forces and “terrorists” of stoking the protests and has long feared that the US or Israel would seek to exploit domestic unrest.
Trump has threatened to come to the “rescue” if the regime killed demonstrators.
The US president warned Iran’s leaders that “you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too”.
“Iran’s in big trouble,” Trump said on Friday. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago.”
The 13-day demonstrations were triggered by economic grievances after shopkeepers in Tehran shuttered their stores to protest soaring prices.
That morphed into nationwide anti-regime demonstrations that have spread to smaller cities and towns across the provinces.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to power 18 months ago vowing to reform the economy, initially sought to placate the demonstrators. He met business leaders to discuss their concerns and appointed a new central bank governor to try to restore “economic stability”.
But as the protests intensified, with huge crowds taking to the streets of Tehran and other cities on Thursday, the start of the Iranian weekend, virtually all lines of communication were cut and the authorities stepped up their warnings to the protesters.
“This is uncharted territory for the Islamic republic as they have organic, bottom-up pressure, with segments of the society that were historically the backbone of the republic protesting, which has mushroomed into something much bigger,” said Ellie Geranmayeh at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“There are no easy answers to this pressure, and combined with this you have the top-down pressure from the US and Israel.”
The protests are the most serious domestic threat to the regime since 2022, when Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab and died in custody. More than 300 people were killed in a backlash against those demonstrations, according to Amnesty International.
But Iran is in a weaker position economically and militarily as a result of Israel’s devastating 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June. During the conflict, Israeli forces assassinated Iran’s top military commanders and nuclear scientists, destroyed its air defences and — along with the US — bombed it nuclear facilities.
The rial has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since the war, exacerbating runaway inflation.