Over the past two weeks of protests, more than 10,600 individuals have been detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. This organization has provided reliable information during previous unrest in Iran.

The agency gathers data from its supporters within Iran, who verify the details. They report that among those killed, 490 were protesters and 48 were security personnel.

With internet service disrupted and phone lines severed in Iran, understanding the scale of the protests from outside the country has become increasingly challenging. The Associated Press has been unable to independently verify the casualty figures.

The Iranian authorities have not released any official numbers regarding casualties from the protests.

Outside of Iran, there is concern that the lack of communication is empowering hard-line elements within Iran’s security forces to intensify their crackdown. On Sunday morning, demonstrators once again took to the streets in the nation’s capital and its second-largest city.

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by either US or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has not indicated it has made any decisions. The massive ongoing US military deployment to the Caribbean has created another factor that the Pentagon and Trump’s national security planners must consider.

The threat to strike the US military and Israel came during a parliamentary speech by Mohammad Baagher Qalibaf, the hard-liner speaker of the body who has run for the presidency in the past.

He directly threatened Israel, calling it “the occupied territory”.

“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centres, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said.

“We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”

Other politicians rushed the dais in parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”

It remains unclear how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after its air defences were destroyed during the 12-day war with Israel in June. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The US military said in the Middle East it is “postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and US interests.”

Iran targeted US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June, while the US Navy’s Middle East-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Israel, meanwhile, is “watching closely” the situation between the US and Iran, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorised to speak to journalists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official added.

“The people of Israel, the entire world, are in awe of the tremendous heroism of the citizens of Iran,” said Netanyahu, a longtime Iran hawk.

At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV mentioned Iran as a place “where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives,” adding that “I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society”.

Protests in Tehran and Mashhad

Online videos sent out of Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran’s Punak neighbourhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit mobile phones. Others banged metal while fireworks went off.

“The pattern of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of scattered, short-lived, and fluid gatherings, an approach shaped in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increased field pressure,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency said.

“Reports were received of surveillance drones flying overhead and movements by security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control.”

In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city some 725 kilometres north-east of Tehran, footage purported to show protesters confronting security forces. Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 800 kilometres south-east of Tehran.

Iranian state television on Sunday morning had correspondents appear on the streets in several cities to show calm areas, with a date stamp shown on screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included.

Government rhetoric ratcheted up. Ali Larijani, a top security official, accused some demonstrators of “killing people or burning some people, which is very similar to what ISIS does,” referring to the Islamic State group by an acronym.

State TV aired funerals of slain security force members while reporting another six had been killed in Kermanshah. In Fars province, violence killed 13 people, and seven security forces were killed in North Khorasan province, it added. It showed a pickup truck full of bodies in body bags and later a morgue.

Even Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who had been trying to ease anger before the demonstrations exploded in recent days, offered a hardening tone in an interview aired on Sunday.

“People have concerns, we should sit with them and if it is our duty, we should resolve their concerns,” Pezeshkian said.

“But the higher duty is not to allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society.”

The demonstrations began on December 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $US1, 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.