Death toll in Iran unrest climbs above 500 as Parliament threatens US, Israel | Top updates

Iran protests escalate, US Israel threatened

A crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed at least 538 people, activists said Sunday, with fears the toll could be far higher as authorities enforce a sweeping information blackout. More than 10,600 people have been detained during the two weeks of unrest, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which relies on activists inside Iran to crosscheck information.

According to its latest spreadsheet - based on activists inside and outside Iran, U.S.-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested, reports Reuters.

As demonstrations continued into Sunday morning in Tehran and the country’s second-largest city, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned that the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force against the Islamic Republic in response to the protests.

The Iranian government has not released official casualty figures. Independent verification has become increasingly difficult as internet services remain shut down and international phone lines are cut. Observers abroad fear the communications blackout is emboldening hardliners within Iran’s security forces to intensify a violent crackdown.

US President Donald Trump publicly expressed support for the protesters, posting on social media that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

Behind the scenes, Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses, including cyberattacks and direct military strikes by the US or Israel, according to people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorised to speak publicly. US media reports, citing anonymous officials, said Trump had been presented with military options but had not taken a final decision.

The White House has not commented on the deliberations. Meanwhile, a large ongoing US military deployment in the Caribbean has added another layer of complexity for Pentagon planners as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to escalate.

Parliament rallies

Iranian state television broadcast the parliament session live. Qalibaf, a hard-liner who has run for the presidency in the past, gave a speech applauding police and Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, particularly its all-volunteer Basij, for having “stood firm” during the protests.

He went on to directly threaten Israel, “the occupied territory” as he referred to it, and the U.S. military, possibly with a pre-emptive strike.

“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said. “We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”

Lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”

It remains unclear just how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after its air defenses were destroyed during the 12-day war in June with Israel. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran's 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. military has said in the Mideast it is “postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and U.S. interests.” Iran targeted U.S. forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar back in June, while the U.S. Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Israel, meanwhile, is “watching closely” the situation between the U.S. and Iran, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak to journalists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official added.

The group has offered accurate tolls in previous rounds of unrest in the Islamic Republic. The Iranian government has not offered any overall casualty figures for the demonstrations.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll, as communications with Iran have been cut.

Protests in Tehran and Mashhad

Online videos sent out of Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran's Punak neighborhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit mobile phones. Others banged metal while fireworks went off.

“The pattern of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of scattered, short-lived, and fluid gatherings, an approach shaped in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increased field pressure,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency said. “Reports were received of surveillance drones flying overhead and movements by security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control.”

In Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city some 725 kilometers (450 miles) northeast of Tehran, footage purported to show protesters confronting security forces. Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran.

Iranian state television on Sunday morning had their correspondents appear on the streets in several cities to show calm areas with a date stamp shown on screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included.

Government rhetoric also ratcheted up Sunday. Ali Larijani, a top security official, accused some demonstrators of “killing people or burning some people, which is very similar to what ISIS does,” referring to the Islamic State group by an acronym.

State TV aired funerals of slain security force members while reporting another six had been killed in Kermanshah. In Fars province, violence killed 13 people, and seven security forces were killed in North Khorasan province, it added. It also showed a pickup truck full of bodies in body bags and later a morgue.

Even Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who had been trying to ease anger before the demonstrations exploded in recent days, offered a hardening tone in an interview aired Sunday.

“People have concerns, we should sit with them and if it is our duty, we should resolve their concerns,” Pezeshkian said. “But the higher duty is not to allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society.”

More demonstrations planned Sunday

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Sunday.

Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi’s support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past, particularly after the 12-day war.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.