President Donald Trump on Sunday reviewed options for military strikes in Iran amid reports that the death toll among anti-government protesters was rising rapidly.
A Sunday report in The Washington Post said that “hundreds” of protesters had been killed in the past 48 hours.
What the Post called a “senior Western official” said that as the protests morphed from complaints about the economy to attacks on the government, Iranian leaders decided they must be quelled.
“This is now unequivocally about regime change for many of the protesters, hence also the regime’s escalation into violence,” the official said.
The “regime is holding it together for now,” the official said, using “massive violence.”
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, said snipers and drones are supporting trooped in the crackdown.
“A massacre is unfolding,” the center said. “The world must act now to prevent further loss of life.”
A Sunday report in the BBC quoted a source as saying, “It’s like a war zone. The streets are full of blood.” The report estimated 10,000 people have been arrested and 500 killed.
The report said that many slain Tehran protesters died from “direct shots to the heads of the young people, to their hearts as well. Many of them didn’t even make it to the hospital.”
Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has been in exile since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, called on Trump to help liberate Iran, according to Fox News.
“You have already established your legacy as a man committed to peace and fighting evil forces,” Pahlavi said. “There is a reason why people in Iran are renaming streets after your name. They know that you are totally opposite to Barack Obama or Joe Biden. They know you’re not going to throw them under the bus as they have had before.”
As noted by The Hill, Iran said that if the U.S. intervenes militarily, it will attack American bases in the Middle East.
“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, speaker of Iran’s Parliament, said. The phrase “occupied territory” refers to Israel.
“We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat,” he said as fellow lawmakers chanted, “Death to America!”
On Friday, after weeks to urging Iran not to mow down protesters calling for reforms, Trump said that if Iran started “killing people like they have in the past, we would get involved,” according to CBS.
Energy Secretary Chis Wright indicated in a Sunday interview that Trump’s public support for the protesters has encouraged them, according to CBS.
“I think the people in Iran are rising up because they feel there’s a strong America that has their back,” Wright said.
On Thursday, in what is often a prelude to a government crackdown, Iran blacked out the internet to cut the nation off from the outside world, as noted by The Washington Post.
The protests began about two weeks ago due to economic conditions, but have since spread as a broad but unfocused show of anger at the Iranian government.
Trump has sent multiple signals that America backs the protesters.
“If Iran [shoots] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump posted to Truth Social earlier this month.
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” the president warned.
As the protests continued, so did Trump’s comments
“There have been cases like this where President Obama totally backed down, but this is something pretty incredible that’s happening in Iran. It’s an amazing thing to watch,” he said
“They’ve done a bad job,” Trump said of Iran’s leaders. “They’ve treated the people very badly, and now they’re being paid back. So let’s see what happens.”
Trump also noted he was “watching it very closely” but also that any American intervention would be limited.
“We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts,” he said. “And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”
In a very pointed statement to Iranian leaders, Trump said, “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
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