Iran protests abate after deadly crackdown, residents and rights group say

By Parisa Hafezi and Nayera Abdallah

DUBAI, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Iran’s deadly crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of repeated U.S. threats to intervene if the killing continues.

The prospect of a U.S. attack has retreated since Wednesday, when President Donald Trump said he’d been told killings in Iran were easing, but more U.S. military assets were expected to arrive in the region, showing the continued tensions.

U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, conducted intense diplomacy with Washington this week to prevent a U.S. strike, warning of repercussions for the wider region that would ultimately impact the United States, a Gulf official said. 

Israel’s intelligence chief David Barnea was also in the U.S. on Friday for talks on Iran, according to a source familiar with the matter, and an Israeli military official said the country’s forces were on “peak readiness”.

The White House said on Thursday that Trump and his team have warned Tehran there would be “grave consequences” if there was further bloodshed and added that the president was keeping “all of his options on the table”.

The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule, which culminated in three days of mass violence at the end of last week.

According to opposition groups and an Iranian official, more than 2,000 people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But several residents of Tehran reached by Reuters said the capital had now been comparatively quiet for four days. Drones were flying over the city, but there had been no sign of major protests on Thursday or Friday. Another resident in a northern city on the Caspian Sea said the streets there also appeared calm. The residents declined to be identified for their safety.

As an internet blackout eased this week, more accounts of the violence have trickled out.

One woman in Tehran told Reuters by phone that her daughter was killed a week ago after joining a demonstration near their home.

“She was 15 years old. She was not a terrorist, not a rioter. Basij forces followed her as she was trying to return home,” she said, referring to a branch of the security forces often used to quell unrest.

The U.S. is expected to send additional offensive and defensive capabilities to the region, but the exact makeup of those forces and the timing of their arrival was still unclear, a U.S. official said speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military’s Central Command declined to comment, saying it does not discuss ship movements.

PAHLAVI CALLS FOR INCREASED PRESSURE

Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-based son of Iran’s last shah who has gained increasing prominence as an opposition figure, on Friday urged the international community to ramp up pressure on Tehran to help protesters overthrow clerical rule.

“The Iranian people are taking decisive action on the ground. It is now time for the international community to join them fully,” said Pahlavi, whose level of support inside Iran is hard to gauge.

Trump this week appeared to downplay the idea of U.S. backing for Pahlavi, voicing uncertainty that the exiled royal heir who has courted support among Western countries could muster significant backing inside Iran. Pahlavi met U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff last weekend, Axios reported.

Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said that there had been no protest gatherings since Sunday, but “the security environment remains highly restrictive”.

“Our independent sources confirm a heavy military and security presence in cities and towns where protests previously took place, as well as in several locations that did not experience major demonstrations,” Norway-based Hengaw said in comments to Reuters.

REPORTS OF SPORADIC UNREST

There were, however, still indications of unrest in some areas. Hengaw reported that a female nurse was killed by direct gunfire from government forces during protests in Karaj, west of Tehran. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

The state-affiliated Tasnim news outlet reported that rioters had set fire to a local education office in Falavarjan County, in central Isfahan Province, on Thursday.

An elderly resident of a town in Iran’s northwestern region, where many Kurdish Iranians live and which has been the focus for many of the biggest flare-ups, said sporadic protests had continued, though not as intensely.

Describing violence earlier in the protests, she said: “I have not seen scenes like that before.”

Video circulating online, which Reuters was able to verify as having been recorded in a forensic medical center in Tehran, showed dozens of bodies lying on floors and stretchers, most in bags but some uncovered. Reuters could not verify the date of the video.

The state-owned Press TV cited Iran’s police chief as saying calm had been restored across the country.    

A death toll reported by U.S.-based rights group HRANA has increased little since Wednesday, now at 2,677 people, including 2,478 protesters and 163 people identified as affiliated with the government.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the HRANA death toll. An Iranian official told the news agency earlier this week that about 2,000 people had been killed.

The casualty numbers dwarf the death toll from previous bouts of unrest that have been suppressed by the state, including in 2009 and 2022.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Nayera Abdallah and Jana Choukeir in Dubai; additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Marine Delrue and Alexander CornwellWriting by Tom Perry, Angus McDowallEditing by Sharon Singleton, Aidan Lewis, Peter Graff)