Death toll rises as Trump considers military action
Dubai: Nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy reached the two-week mark on Sunday, as the death toll in violence surrounding the demonstrations reached at least 116 people killed, activists said.
US President Donald Trump has been given military options for a strike on Iran, but has not made a final decision, according to reports in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Trump has posted on social media that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”
This screen grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown by authorities.Credit: AP
The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”
The New York Times report says Trump is seriously considering authorising a strike in response to the Iranian regime’s efforts to suppress demonstrations, and the options presented to him include non-military sites in Tehran.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. But the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 116 and over 2600 others detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. The agency has been accurate in multiple rounds of previous unrest in Iran.
Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while portraying control over the nation, without discussing dead demonstrators, whom it increasingly refers to as “terrorists.” However, it also acknowledged protests went on into Sunday (Iranian time) with demonstrations in Tehran and in the holy city of Mashhad to the northeast.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signalled a coming clampdown, despite US warnings. Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warned that anyone taking part in protests or “helping rioters” will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.
“Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence,” he said.
