Protests in Iran near the 2-week mark as authorities intensify crackdown
on demonstrators
[January 10, 2026]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protests sweeping across Iran neared
the two-week mark Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging
the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the
Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world.
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 65 people killed and over 2,300
others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News
Agency. Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while
portraying control over the nation.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown,
despite U.S. warnings.
“The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” U.S. Secretary of
State Marco Rubio wrote Saturday on the social platform X. The State
Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump.
When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”
State TV split-screen highlights Iran's challenge
Saturday marks the start of the work week in Iran, but many schools and
universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported.
Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.
State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement
from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami,
while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, aired repeatedly
during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honors Iran's 1982 liberation
of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. It has been used
in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair to protest the
2022 death of Mahsa Amini as well.
“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the
country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed
terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private
property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in
Tehran and most provinces last night.”
That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The
Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran's Saadat
Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.
“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran's
paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able
to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of
what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan. In it, a protester
appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline
bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.
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In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by
The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows a
fire as people protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC
via AP)
The Young Journalists' Club, associated with state TV, reported that
protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij
force in the city of Gachsaran. It also reported a security official
was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer killed in
the port city of Bandar Abbas and another in Gilan, as well as one
person slain in Mashhad.
State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by
hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.
More weekend demonstrations planned
Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and
international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some
state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar's state-funded
Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared
to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.
Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests
Thursday and Friday, asked demonstrators to take to the streets
Saturday and Sunday with Iran's old lion-and-sun flag, used during
the time of the shah.
Pahlavi's support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past
— particularly after the 12-day war. 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.
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.
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