Despite government claims that calm was returning to the streets, the situation in Iran turned worse Friday with police firing on protesters, killing several.
As Friday in Iran is the weekend day off, people in several cities came out to protest midday instead of the usual evening hours. A demonstration in largely Sunni city of Zahedan at noon turned into gunfire and many casualties.
The official government news agency IRNA Friday evening quoted "eyewitnesses" as saying that 19 people were killed and many wounded when security forces opened fire on protesters, after tensions that led the local ethnic Baluchi youth to attack three police stations. The exact number of casualties is not clear yet.
News about protests in Tehran was slow in coming, due to the government's shutdown of the internet. But around 22:15 local time reports emerged of fierce protests in the capital.
An ominous development for the government was protests in Ahvaz, the capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province that had remained calm in the past two weeks. Young protesters came out midday and were met with tear gas. Instability in Khuzestan can easily lead to disruption in oil production, the lifeline of a cash-starved government.
Protesters were chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom”, the mainstay slogan after a 22-year-old woman died in police custody on September 16 because of fatal wounds she received in the head after being detained by the so-called “morality police” for her “improper hijab”.
A union representing oil workers has already threatened a strike if people arrested during the past two weeks are not freed.
There were also protests in the northern city of Ardebil Friday, where demonstrators shouted, “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Khamenei”, the 83-year-old cleric who has ruled the country for 33 years.
The intelligence ministry issued a statement Friday evening blaming foreign intelligence agencies and opposition groups abroad for the protests and claimed to have arrested diozens of protest "leaders" connected with foreign conspirators. It also blamed The United States and Britain for instigating the unrest.
The Iran Atrocities (Aban) Tribunal, a people's tribunal organized by human rights advocates, said Friday its panel "unanimously" concluded that there's a powerful case against 13 Iranian officials to answer for crimes against humanity during the November 2019 protests. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei comes at the top of the list.
The symbolic tribunal opened in London in November 2021. The protests were the bloodiest in Iran’s history with security forces opening fire on demonstrators in many cities, killing hundreds.
Iranians all over the world have called for protests on Saturday in major cities and capitals. Activists in Iran have also called for a gathering outside universities.
This live coverage lasting seven hours ended at 01:00 Iran time on Saturday.
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Young women in Gohar Dasht west of Tehran took off their headscarves chanting, "We are all Mahsas", referring to Mahsa Amini who was killed in the custody of hijab police. Her death triggered the current protests.
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The first video showing a relatively large and noisy protest in Tehran Friday night. The exact location of the demonstration is not mentioned. Protesters are heard chanting, "Death to Khamenei" and beating on metal sheets.
Those who stayed home in Tehran, are shouting slogans from their apartment windows. Here "Death to Khamenei" and "Death to the dictator" ring out in a residential part of the capital.
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Protest in Gohar Dasht, 20 miles west of Tehran. People chant "Woman, Life Freedom" as they march in the street.
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Iran's intelligence ministry Friday night rushed in to claim that it has arrested nearly 200 protest leaders afilliated with foreign-based opposition groups who according to the Islamic Republic are behind the current uprising. The ministry said it had areested 92 monarchists, 77 people connected to Kurdish groups and 49 individuals linked with the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) opposition group.
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Protests Friday night in Dezful, in the oil-rich Khuzestan province. This is the first reported protest in the city. Earlier in the day, there were demonstrations in the provincial provincial capital Ahvaz.
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A new video received from events in Zahedan earlier on Friday shows some protesters throwing incindiary devices at a police station that they seized later.
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Gunshots are heard in Mashhad, northwest Iran in a short video that does not show a bigger picture of the protests. Mashhad is Iran's second largest city and an important religious center.
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Young people protesting in Sanandaj, a major Kurdish-populated city in Western Iran. They are chanting "Woman, Life, Freddom", the hallmark slogan of the current protests.
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Fierce protests in the mainly Kurdish city of Saqqez in western Iran, the hometown of Mahsa Amini whose death in thehands of Iran's hijab police in mid-September triggered the current protests. People were chanting "Deth to the dictator."
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Video received from the centreal city of Kerman shows protests in the afternoon. Demonstrators chant "Death to the dictator".
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A social media monitoring group, @1500tasvir, says that according to its information government forces killed 36 people in Zahedan today, using military weapons. However, protesters burned down a police station and control most of the streets. This news was received 18:30 local time. A video below shows wounded people in a hospital.
Iran International cannot confirm the high death toll cited by this source. A Baluch community activist in Norway told us that 10 people were killed but expressed concern about the lives of wounded protesters taken to hospital.
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A video from Zahedan shows wounded people in a hospital.
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Young protesters in Ahvaz shouting "Woman, Life, Freedom" on Friday as police used tear gas.
Another video from Ahvaz, showing women removing their headscarves.
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A young woman standing at the grave of her mother Minoo Majidi who was killed by security forces in Kermanshah on September 20, holding her hair which she has shaved in protest.
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Protesters in the norther city of Ardebil chanted "death to the Dictator" on Friday, a favorite slogan during all recent protests.
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Security and intelligence agents are marking homes in Iran from where people were heard shouting slogans.
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