Published: 12:41 AM, 14 January 2026
2,000 feared dead in Iran as crackdown intensifies
Help is on its way: Trump; US urges citizens to leave Iran
Anti-government protests in Iran get augmented across the country with all the more demonstrators participating in the agitations. The photo was clicked in Tehran on Tuesday. -Guardian.
Thousands of people are feared dead following a severe crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran, as families abroad receive harrowing reports from those still inside the country.
Describing the situation in their first calls home in several days, Iranians have spoken of extensive death and destruction.
An Iranian security official has told a news agency that the death toll could be around 2,000 people, including security personnel.
Human rights groups have raised alarms over reports that one protester, Erfan Soltani, is due to be executed tomorrow, with some describing the case as unprecedented in its speed.
Protests have been ongoing for several weeks. State media claimed that demonstrations had calmed last night, but the BBC has received footage from citizens reporting that reporting that protests continued in multiple locations across the country.
In response to the crackdown, US President Donald Trump has announced that countries conducting business with Iran could face a 25% tariff on trade with the United States.
Officials have told CBS News that the President has been briefed on a range of military and covert options, and his national security team is expected to meet later to discuss potential interventions.
Although some Iranians have been able to contact family members abroad, an ongoing internet blackout is hindering the verification of information from inside the country.
President Trump's typically all-caps social media post on Tuesday has raised the stakes dramatically.
Spurring on Iranian protestors, urging them to take over Iranian institutions and log the names of their "killers and abusers", sounded like the words of a president convinced that the Iranian regime could soon fall.
And his post contained the clearest hint yet that Mr Trump is set on some kind of direct intervention.
HELP IS ON ITS WAY:
US President Donald Trump has urged Iranian anti-government protesters to "keep protesting", saying "help is on its way"
At the weekend, Trump suggested he might be willing to pursue diplomatic channels, following what he described as an Iranian offer of talks.
But it seems diplomacy has, for now, been set aside.
"I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS," he wrote on Truth Social.
Online, all-caps threats are a familiar feature of this president's leadership style, and he hasn't always followed through.
But having promised to come to the rescue of Iranian protesters, and with hundreds - perhaps thousands - of them now dead, Donald Trump appears to have made up his mind.
It's hard to see him backing down now.
Meanwhile, the virtual US Embassy for Iran warned American citizens on 12 January to leave the country immediately as nationwide protests escalate, reports Anadolu Agency.
"Leave Iran now," the embassy said in a security alert, urging US nationals to plan their departure without assistance from the US government. "If you cannot leave, find a secure location within your residence or another safe building," the advisory added.
The warning also urged Americans in Iran to anticipate continued internet outages, plan alternative communications, and, "if safe to do so, consider departing Iran by land to Armenia or Türkiye."
EU DISCUSSING FRESH SANCTIONS ON IRAN, OFFICIALS SAY:
After threatening to do so yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Brussels would "swiftly" propose new sanctions on Iran over its crackdown on protesters.
"The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying. I unequivocally condemn the excessive use of force and continued restriction of freedom," von der Leyen wrote on X.
"Further sanctions on those responsible for the repression will be swiftly proposed. We stand with the people of Iran who are bravely marching for their liberty," she said.
She added that the European Union had already listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under its "human rights sanctions regime".
Moreover, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also reiterated that the European bloc was currently discussing putting additional sanctions on the country.
Many experts trace the causes of Iran's dire economic woes, the initial trigger of the protests more than two weeks ago, to international sanctions from European and North American countries.
IRAN'S NOBEL LAUREATE SHIRIN EBADI WARNS OF 'ORGANISED KILLING':
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has accused Iranian authorities of attempting to conceal a deadly crackdown on protesters by cutting internet access and suppressing information.
In a post on Instagram, Ebadi said the shutdown of communications and alleged intimidation of witnesses pointed to an effort by Iran's government to "kill in silence and then erase it".
Ebadi called out a pattern of "organised killing" carried out under the cover of internet blackouts. She also demanded the internet's immediate restoration, and an independent international investigation into the bloodshed.
>>Agency
