With Iran’s internet connections severed and phone lines disrupted, understanding the full scope of the protests from outside the country has become increasingly challenging. This digital blackout has left the international community struggling to grasp the situation on the ground.

Nevertheless, reports from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reveal a grim tally: at least 72 individuals have lost their lives, and over 2,300 have been detained amid the unrest. These figures underscore the intensity and the serious nature of the demonstrations sweeping across Iran.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television has been focusing on the casualties among security forces, projecting an image of governmental control and stability. This narrative attempts to downplay the extent of the protests while highlighting the government’s steadfast grip on power.

Adding to the tension, Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, issued a stark warning on Saturday. He declared that participants in the protests would be labeled as “enemies of God,” a charge that carries the death penalty. This severe pronouncement was relayed through Iranian state television, extending the threat even to those who might assist protesters, thereby escalating the government’s crackdown on dissent.

The statement carried by Iranian state television said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.

“Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement read.

“Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”

The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”

Saturday marks the start of the work week in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported.

Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.

State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the Epic of Khorramshahr by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations.

The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honours Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war.

It has been used in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini as well.

It also repeatedly aired video of purported protesters shooting at security forces with firearms.

“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported Saturday morning.

“After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night.”

That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.

“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.

The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan.

In it, a protester appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.

The Young Journalists’ Club, associated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran.

It also reported a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another in Gilan, as well as one person slain in Mashhad.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, also close to the Guard, claimed authorities detained nearly 200 people belonging to what it described as “operational terrorist teams.”

It alleged those arrested had weapons including firearms, grenades and gasoline bombs.

State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.

More weekend demonstrations planned

Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semi-official media to publish.

Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but it appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday.

He urged protesters to carry Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as your own”.

Pahlavi’s support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war.

Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Online video purported to show protests ongoing on Saturday night as well.

The demonstrations began on December 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $US1 ($1.50), as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program.

The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Airlines have cancelled some flights into Iran over the demonstrations. Austrian Airlines said Saturday it had decided to suspend its flights to Iran “as a precautionary measure” through Monday.

Turkish Airlines earlier announced the cancellation of 17 flights to three cities in Iran.

Meanwhile, concern is growing that the internet shutdown will allow Iran’s security forces to go on a bloody crackdown, as they have in other rounds of demonstrations.

Ali Rahmani, the son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi who is imprisoned in Iran, noted that security forces killed hundreds in a 2019 protest “so we can only fear the worst”.

“They are fighting, and losing their lives, against a dictatorial regime,” Rahmani said.