Iran’s Supreme Leader Admits Thousands Killed in Recent Protests

Iran’s Supreme Leader has for the first time publicly acknowledged that thousands of people had been killed, “some in an inhumane and savage manner”, during recent protests.

A violent response to the unrest has cost 3,090 lives, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists of Iran News Agency (HRANA), with some activist groups putting the death toll much higher. An internet outage made it extremely difficult to obtain clear information.

In a speech on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said thousands of people had been killed and blamed the United States for the deaths.

American President Donald Trump recently urged Iranian protesters to “keep protesting” and threatened military intervention if security forces killed them.

The protests, which began on December 28 over the economic issue, have transformed into calls for an end to the rule of Iran’s supreme leader.

The Iranian government has called the protests “riots” supported by Iran’s enemies.

Protesters were met with deadly force and videos of shootings by security forces during demonstrations were authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Verify.

There has also been a near-total shutdown of the Internet and communications services in Iran. On Saturday, overall connectivity remained at about 2% of usual levels, according to cyber monitor NetBlocks.

There have been fewer reported unrest in recent days, but with Internet access still limited, developments on the ground remain unclear.

A woman from Shiraz, southwest Iran, told the Persian BBC that “security forces are still patrolling on motorbikes to keep the situation under control, but overall things have returned to normal.”

During his speech on Saturday, Khamenei also said that Iran considers President Trump a “criminal” and that the United States must be “held responsible” for the recent unrest.

He also claimed on social media that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran.”

Trump has not yet responded to the supreme leader and the BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

The US State Department said on Saturday it had “heard reports that the Islamic Republic is preparing options to target US bases”.

He said Iran would face “a very, very powerful force” if it launched such an attack and warned Tehran not to “play games with President Trump.”

The US president said on Wednesday that he had been told that “the killings in Iran had stopped”, but added that he did not rule out military action against the country.

His comments come after the United States and the United Kingdom both reduced the number of their troops at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Officials told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that a partial US withdrawal was a “precautionary measure”.