Protests in Iran: the number of victims and arrests is growing, the authorities have introduced an information blockade

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA, USA), as of the morning of January 9, during clashes with security forces during the protests, at least 42 people were killed and more than 2,270 were detained. At the same time, on Thursday evening, some opposition sources from Iran reported the death of over 45 people.

Information about the victims is extremely difficult to verify.

Footage of what is happening is published on social networks: overturned and burning cars of the pro-government Basij militia in Tehran, a crowd of thousands of demonstrators in Mashhad, mass protests in Tabriz, the installation of the “Shah” flag in the center of Khorramabad, attacks on fighters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in different parts of the country, etc. A shot of a young woman lighting a cigarette from a burning portrait was widely circulated. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Despite attempts by the Ayatollah regime to impose an information blockade, footage from the scene is widely disseminated. In some cases, Starlink satellite Internet can be used.

Mass protests in Iran last about two weeks, they cover an increasingly larger territory, and more and more people are involved in them. Communication restrictions have made it difficult to track the impact of the harsh crackdown on protests.

Iranian state media are forced to publish some information about what is happening. But the general tone of these publications is as follows: the protests are inspired from abroad, the “enemy” (primarily Israel and the United States) brought the Islamic Republic to a severe economic crisis, and is now provoking bloodshed. However, official information about the victims and those arrested has not yet been published.