Warning security forces could be preparing to commit ‘massacre’ under cover of internet shutdown
Demonstrators raged in the streets of Iran into Saturday morning, defying an escalating crackdown by authorities against the growing protest movement, now in its second week.
An internet shutdown imposed by the authorities on Thursday has largely cut the protesters off from the rest of the world, but videos that trickled out of the country showed thousands of people in the streets of Tehran. They chanted “death to Khamenei,” in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and “long live the shah.”
Crowds of protesters marched through the streets of Mashhad as fires burned around them, a show of defiance in the hometown of Khamenei, who has condemned the protesters as “vandals” and blamed the US for fanning the flames of dissent.
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if Iranian authorities kill protesters, earning angry rebukes from authorities in Tehran. On Friday, Trump said the Iranian authorities were “in big trouble”, adding: “You better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting too.”
