US President Donald Trump on Friday said that if Iran shoots and kills peaceful protesters, the US “will come to their rescue”. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he said in a Truth Social post. Senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Larijani, said after Trump’s post that US interference in Iranian protests would lead to chaos across the region.
Several people have been killed during unrest in Iran, Iranian media and rights groups said on Thursday, in the biggest protests to hit the country for three years over worsening economic conditions sparked violence in several provinces. The clashes between protesters and security forces mark a significant escalation in the unrest that has spread across the country since shopkeepers began protesting on Sunday over the government’s handling of the sharp currency slide and rapidly rising prices. The Iranian rial lost around half its value against the dollar in 2025, with official inflation reaching 42.5% in December.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that three protesters were killed and 17 were injured during an attack on a police station in Iran’s western province of Lorestan. “The rioters entered the police headquarters around 6pm local time on Thursday … they clashed with police forces and set fire to several police cars,” Fars reported. Earlier, Fars and rights group Hengaw reported deaths in Lordegan city in the country’s Charmahal and Bakhtiari province.
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Authorities confirmed one death in the western city of Kuhdasht, and Hengaw reported another death in the central province of Isfahan. Fars reported that two people were killed in Lordegan in clashes between security services and what it called armed protesters. It earlier said several have died.
Hengaw said several people have been killed and wounded there by security forces. The Revolutionary Guards said one member of its affiliated Basij volunteer paramilitary unit was killed in Kuhdasht and another 13 wounded, blaming demonstrators, who it accused of taking advantage of the protests. Hengaw said that the man, named by the Guards as Amirhossam Khodayari Fard, had been protesting and was killed by security forces.
Reuters could not immediately verify any of those reports. Protests also took place on Thursday in Marvdasht in the southern Fars province, the activist news site HRANA reported. Hengaw said demonstrators were detained on Wednesday in the western provinces of Kermanshah, Khuzestan and Hamedan.
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