Several people who have been protesting in Iran over the past few days told CNN they witnessed large crowds and brutal violence on the streets of Tehran, and one woman said she saw “bodies folded on top of each other” in a hospital.
A woman in her mid-60s and a 70-year-old man said they saw people of all ages on the streets of the Iranian capital on Thursday and Friday. But on Friday night, “many people” were killed as security forces brandished military-style rifles, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The riots began on December 28 as demonstrations in Tehran’s bazaar over rampant inflation and have since spread to more than 100 cities, posing the biggest challenge for the Iranian regime in years.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that the United States stands with the Iranian people, after President Donald Trump repeated his threat on Friday to attack Iran if its security forces kill protesters.
Demonstrators in another part of Tehran provided valuable insight into the nature of the protests amid the ongoing internet shutdown, telling CNN they helped a man in his mid-60s who was seriously injured in the crackdown. He had about 40 pellets stuck in his leg and his arm was broken.
They said they tried to get the man to see several hospitals, but the situation was “completely chaotic.”
Other protesters told CNN that the number of people taking to the streets was unprecedented, calling the scene “incredibly beautiful and hopeful.”
A televised speech by the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Friday night changed the mood. Immediately afterward, demonstrators said the crackdown became incredibly violent.
“Unfortunately, this government may have to accept the reality that it will not step down even if it loses, unless there is an outside force,” one protester told CNN.
At least 65 people have been killed and more than 2,300 arrested across the United States in the past 13 days during the riots, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). HRANA says the exact number of deaths is impossible to determine due to internet outages, so the figure could be higher.
Protests have been recorded in 512 locations in 180 cities, Iran’s human rights organization said in an update on Friday.
It said 50 of the dead were protesters, 14 were law enforcement officers or security forces, and one was a “government-affiliated civilian.”
On Saturday, 100 people were arrested for disturbing public order and leading an “insurrection” in Iran’s Baharestan province near Tehran, local officials told the semi-state news agency Tasnim.
CNN could not independently confirm the number of people killed or arrested.
One Tehran resident told CNN on Saturday whether the power outage had inspired more people to join anti-regime demonstrations sweeping the country.
“The internet shutdown seems to have backfired as more people took to the streets out of boredom and frustration,” said a 47-year-old resident of Iran’s capital, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“People of all ages participate, men, women, children, and they gather in large numbers to shout out their windows,” he said.
The resident explained how the public was waiting for darkness to descend on the streets of Iran’s big cities. He said there was a sense of “unstoppable momentum” as the protests intensified.
The protests were initially sparked by concerns about inflation, but residents said the price of everyday goods continued to rise amid political unrest, making essentials such as eggs and milk “significantly more expensive.”
Iranian military commander Amir Khatami, in a statement shared with state media on Saturday, urged Iranians to “remain vigilant” and called for unity and national unity to “prevent the enemy from achieving its malign objectives.”
Khamenei continued to post on social media despite the power outage, using Platform X on Friday to brand the protesters a “group bent on destruction” and criticize President Trump.
Doug Madley, an expert who studies internet outages, told CNN on Saturday that Iran is “technically connected to the internet” despite authorities cutting off communications.
“So if you want to turn something back on, anyone can do it, even with a given Internet connection,” Madley said.
“We’re seeing traffic trickle out. So there’s some traffic. Very small, but not zero. It’s probably some high-value people who are staying connected.”
CNN’s Laura Sherman contributed to this report.
