Video shows security forces firing tear gas at protesters as Iran crackdown kills dozens
In Iran, protesters defied authorities on Tuesday, taking to the streets of the capital, Tehran, and small towns to chant anti-government slogans, amid an ongoing violent crackdown that a human rights group said has left at least 36 people dead.
The protests began last week with economic demands over the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial. They quickly turned political, with demonstrators chanting slogans against the ruling clergy.
The rial fell to a record low of 1.46 million against the dollar on Tuesday. If it continues to fall, the protests are unlikely to stop anytime soon, analysts say.
HRANA, a network of human rights activists, noted in a report Tuesday that 36 people had been killed since the protests began 10 days ago — 34 demonstrators and two members of the security forces — and that more than 2,000 people had been arrested.
Dramatic videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News show security forces firing tear gas into Tehran’s main bazaar on Tuesday as protesters rush to hide in passageways and narrow streets. Gunshots can be heard in some videos, and protesters can also be heard chanting slogans directly against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic.
The unrest at Tehran’s bazaar is particularly troubling for officials because the closure of shops in the old market and protests by the merchant class were key elements that led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, considered a relative moderate, called last week for protesters’ demands to be heard and said he was asking the interior minister to meet with leaders of the protest movement.
But the protests are diffuse and largely leaderless, and Pezeshkian’s mediation efforts — as well as killings and arrests by security forces — have not convinced demonstrators to stay off the streets.
“The system has responded to these protests with a combination of conciliatory rhetoric and brute force,” Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, said in a text message responding to questions. “The fact that neither worked indicates that the former fell far short of what the protesters wanted, and that the latter failed to deter them from expressing it.” »
Protesters received an unexpected offer of support last week when President Donald Trump warned that the United States would intervene if violence against demonstrators continued, but did not specify what steps the United States might take.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Friday that Trump’s threat of intervention made US bases in the region “legitimate targets.”
Analysts say Trump’s message fueled conspiracy theories among the government’s hardest elements, who were already on high alert against foreign interference after a devastating 12-day war with Israel last summer, partly joined by the U.S. military, that left the country reeling.
The detention of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a staunch ally of Tehran, over the weekend only highlighted the problem for Iranian officials.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the operation to arrest Maduro a “clear example of state terrorism” in a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart on Saturday, according to the official website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
“The threshold for U.S. intervention, or what it might look like, is not entirely clear, but Tehran’s leaders are likely worried about the prospect of facing not only instability from below, but also military action from abroad,” Vaez said.
On Monday, the head of the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, issued a clear warning: the legitimate demands of protesters would be heard, but those who provoke unrest would be dealt with harshly.
“In the current situation, the main enemies of our people, that is, the American and Zionist regimes, have officially and publicly supported the chaos in our country,” Mohseni-Ejei said, according to state media.
He added: “Now there is no room for leniency towards rioters and agitators. »
Some of the worst violence in recent days has taken place in the small town of Malekshahi and nearby Ilam in western Iran. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish watchdog registered in Norway that monitors human rights violations in Iran, reported that security forces opened fire on the crowd on Saturday, killing five people and wounding more than 40 others.
In a video posted on the organization’s website and verified by NBC News, a crowd quickly disperses as multiple gunshots ring out and a handful of men return to pick up a man who is bleeding from a head wound.
The injured and dead from Saturday’s violence in Malekshahi were taken to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam, where security forces stormed the compound and used batons, tear gas and live fire, according to Hengaw. A video posted on the organization’s website and verified by NBC News shows a member of the security forces shooting in the hospital courtyard where people were gathered behind a door.
The U.S. State Department’s Farsi-language account on The post also called the raid a “crime.”
On Monday, Pezeshkian ordered the interior minister to investigate unrest in Ilam province, according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency.
Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in London, said the use of security forces, Internet slowdowns and violence in small towns were part of a “playbook of repression” used by the government to deal with protests.
“Of course, this is all part of a more organized effort, after a lenient first few days, to get people off the streets as quickly as possible,” she said.
