TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Protests in Iran have killed more than 500 people, an opposition human rights group said Sunday. According to its latest figures – from activists inside and outside Iran – the US-based human rights group HRANA, as reported by CNA, said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest.
Iran has not provided official figures and the figures could not be independently verified.
The widespread protests across Iran have prompted Tehran to threaten to target US military bases if President Donald Trump carries out his threat to intervene on behalf of the protesters.
With the Islamic Republic's clerical regime facing its largest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if violence is used against the protesters.
Trump is scheduled to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday, January 13, to discuss options for Iran, a US official said Sunday. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the options include military strikes, the use of covert cyber weapons, expanded sanctions, and providing online support to anti-government sources.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Washington against making "a miscalculation."
"Let us be clear: In the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target," said Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Rising Cost of Living
The protests began on December 28 in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have ruled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities accused the US and Israel of inciting unrest and called for nationwide demonstrations on Monday, January 12, to condemn "terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel," state media reported.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday.
Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching at night, clapping and chanting slogans. The crowd "has no end nor beginning," a man's voice could be heard saying.
Footage from the northeastern city of Mashhad showed smoke billowing into the night sky from street fires, masked protesters, and roads strewn with debris, as seen in another video posted Saturday. Explosions were also heard.
State television showed dozens of body bags on the floor of the Tehran coroner's office, saying the dead were victims of an incident caused by "armed terrorists," as well as footage of families gathered outside Tehran's Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center waiting to identify the bodies.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was shocked by the reports of violence by Iranian authorities and urged maximum restraint. "The rights to freedom of expression, association & peaceful assembly must be fully respected & protected," he said via the X platform.
Authorities on Sunday declared three days of national mourning "in honour of martyrs killed in resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime," according to state media.
Three Israeli sources, who attended Israeli security consultations over the weekend, said Israel is on high alert for possible US intervention.
Israel launched an unprovoked 12-day attack on Iran in June 2025, which the United States followed up with attacks on nuclear installations. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and an American air base in Qatar.
Pressure on the Mullahs' Regime
Although Iranian authorities have quelled previous protests, the latest protests come as Tehran is still recovering from last year's war and with its regional standing weakened by blows to allies like Lebanon's Hezbollah since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The unrest in Iran comes as Trump flaunts US power internationally, following the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discusses acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel and the US are behind the destabilization and that Iran's enemies have brought in "terrorists ... who set mosques on fire ... attack banks, and public properties."
"Families, I ask you: Do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others," he said in a television interview. He added that the government was ready to listen to the people and resolve economic issues.
Iran summoned the British ambassador to the foreign ministry on Sunday over “interventionist comments” attributed to the British foreign secretary and a protester who removed the Iranian flag from the London Embassy building and replaced it with a flag used before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alan Eyre, a former US diplomat and Iran expert, argued that the protests were unlikely to topple the government.
“I think it more likely that it puts these protests down eventually, but emerges from the process far weaker,” he said, noting that Iran’s elite still appears cohesive and there is no organized opposition.
Iranian state television broadcast funeral processions in western cities like Gachsaran and Yasuj for security personnel killed in the protests.
State television said 30 members of the security forces would be buried in the central Iranian city of Isfahan and six others were killed by “rioters” in Kermanshah in the west.
Trump’s Threat
Trump, in a social media post on Saturday, said: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”
In a phone call on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of US intervention in Iran, according to Israeli sources present at the conversation.
Several US lawmakers on Sunday questioned the wisdom of taking military action against Iran. Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that rather than weakening the regime, a military strike against Iran could rally the people against external enemies.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last Shah who lives in the US and is supported by Israel, said Trump had observed the "indescribable bravery" of the Iranian people. "Do not abandon the streets," Pahlavi wrote in X.
Read: Trump Issues Iran Threat, Tehran Vows Retaliation
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