For over two weeks, tens of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets, chanting for the regime to step down and "death to the dictator," referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The protests have grown in scale as the reported death toll among protesters has skyrocketed.
However, the regime in Tehran claims that the situation is "completely under control." Early on Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to Al Jazeera, that the protests had degenerated into violence to give US President Donald Trump "an excuse to interfere."
The minister urged regime loyalists to gather for large counter-demonstrations, which, according to Ali Khamenei, attracted large crowds. "A historic day," he called the turnout, according to the English-language state-run Iranian Press TV.
"Shooting at everything and everyone"
Norway-based Iran Human Rights states that at least 648 protesters have been killed, but the organization also warns that the figure could be much higher, and that the actual number of dead could be as many as 6,000.
Exactly what is happening is difficult to know, as internet and telephony have been down for over four days as of Monday evening. The little information that is leaking out - often with the help of Starlink satellites - is difficult to verify, but the reports of very high death tolls from human rights organizations in exile are consistent.
On Thursday, before the internet was shut down, a journalist in Mashhad described the regime's brutal tactics to the British newspaper The Guardian:
They are shooting at crowds from vans and motorbikes. I have seen them slow down and deliberately shoot at people's faces. Many have been injured. The streets are full of blood. I fear I will soon witness a sea of dead.
Darkness descends
Communications in the country were shut down on Thursday evening by the regime in Tehran. According to analysts, the strategy is aimed at making it more difficult for protesters, but also at concealing the regime's crackdown on the demonstrators from the outside world.
The regime has also occasionally managed to disrupt contact with Starlink satellites, according to the AFP news agency, the first time this has happened in peacetime.
On Sunday, the US-based organization HRANA stated that more than 10,600 people had been arrested during the protests. No updated total was available just over a day later.
