In a troubling escalation of events, Iranian security forces have resorted to opening fire on demonstrators amid rising tensions in the country. This comes as former U.S. President Donald Trump has issued warnings to Tehran, pledging support for the protesters while the regime intensifies its crackdown on dissent.

Grim scenes unfolded in Tehran on December 1, where video footage captured security personnel advancing down a street and shooting at protesters. The unrest, which has persisted for nearly a week, has already claimed several lives as the nation struggles to contain the mounting discontent.

The protests ignited after the Iranian Rial plummeted to its lowest point, exacerbating the country’s economic woes as the prices of essential goods continue to soar. Initially centered in the capital, the anti-regime demonstrations have rapidly spread, engulfing over 20 cities in their wake.

In reaction to the widespread unrest, the authoritarian government has launched a severe crackdown across the nation, home to more than 90 million people, in a bid to quash the burgeoning movement.

In response, the dictatorial authorities have harshly cracked down on the country of more than 90million people. 

This crackdown drew the ire of Trump, who earlier today said in a post to social media in response to Iran’s actions: ‘We are locked and loaded and ready to go’. 

Unverified footage appears to show Iranian security forces tonight firing live rounds at dissenters, but the US has not yet responded to these videos. 

The US has already showed its willingness to take military action, having bombed civilian, military and nuclear targets alongside the Israelis back in June. 

Horrific footage taken in the Iranian capital on December 1 showed security forces running down the a road and opening fire on protesters

The country grapples with unrest that has gone on for nearly a week and has left several dead

Responding to Trump’s comments, top Iranian official Ali Larijani warned that US interference in domestic Iranian issues would amount to a destabilisation of the entire Middle East. Iran backs proxy ​forces in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

And Iran earlier warns that ‘all US bases and forces in the entire region’ would become ‘legitimate targets’ if Washington intervenes in internal protests.

Tehran issued the stark threat after the US President said America was ‘locked and loaded and ready to go’ if Iranian authorities killed peaceful demonstrators during nationwide protests over soaring living costs. 

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, accused foreign intelligence agencies of attempting to hijack legitimate protests and turn them into violent unrest.

‘The devil’s cry was raised because the efforts of armed field agents of the intelligence services to turn the legitimate protests of the bazaars and guilds into violent and armed urban battles failed,’ he said in an X post.

He added that Iran had repeatedly defeated enemies ‘far more experienced’ throughout history and insisted the country did not equate protesters with foreign mercenaries, saying: ‘We embrace our beloved children.’

But Mr Ghalibaf issued a direct warning to Washington, saying the ‘disrespectful President of the United States’ should understand that any American ‘adventure’ would make all US centres and forces across the region ‘legitimate targets’.

He also stressed that Iranians are ‘always united and determined to act against any aggressor.’

On Wednesday, a photo of a lone demonstrator defiantly sitting on the road in front of armed security forces drew parallels to the ‘Tank Man’ snap taken during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests

An overturned car and multiple fires burn as protesters chant outside a police station, during Iran’s biggest demonstrations in three years over economic hardship, in Azna, Lorestan Province, Iran, in this still image obtained from a social media video released on January 1, 2026

Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025

In a Friday letter ​to the UN secretary-general and president of the Security Council seen by Reuters, Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani called for the Security Council to condemn Trump’s statements.

‘Iran will exercise its rights decisively and proportionately. The United States of America bears full responsibility for any consequences arising from these unlawful threats and any ensuing escalation,’ he said in the letter.

This week’s protests over soaring inflation are so far smaller than some previous bouts of unrest in Iran, but have spread across the country, with deadly confrontations between demonstrators and security ​forces focused in western provinces.

State-affiliated media and rights groups have reported at least 10 ‍deaths since Wednesday, including one man who authorities said was a member of the Basij paramilitary force affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards.

The Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership ​has seen off repeated eruptions of unrest in recent decades, often quelling protests with heavy security measures and mass arrests. But economic problems may leave authorities more vulnerable now.

This week’s protests are the biggest since nationwide demonstrations triggered by the death of a young woman in custody in 2022 paralysed Iran for weeks, with rights groups reporting hundreds killed.

Trump did not specify what sort of action the US could take in support of the protests.

Washington has long imposed broad financial sanctions on Tehran, ‍in particular since Trump’s ‍first term when, in 2018, he pulled the U.S. out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and declared a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Tehran.

Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities on Thursday with six reported killed in the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Pictured: Screengrab of footage shared online which appeared to show protesters clashing with the security force 

Video earlier showed dozens of people gathered in front of a burning police station overnight, as gunshots sporadically rang out and people shouted ‘shameless, shameless’ at the authorities.

In the southern city of Zahedan, where Iran’s Baluch minority predominates, the human rights news group Hengaw reported that protesters had chanted slogans including ‘Death to the dictator’.

Hengaw has reported at least 80 arrests so far over the unrest, mostly in the west, and including 14 members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.

State television also reported the arrest of an unspecified number of people in another western city, Kermanshah, accused of manufacturing petrol ⁠bombs and homemade pistols. Iranian media also said two heavily armed individuals were arrested in central and western Iran before they could carry out attacks.

The deaths acknowledged by official or semi-official Iranian media have been in the small western cities of Lordegan and Kuhdasht. Hengaw also reported that a man was killed in Fars province in central Iran, though state news sites denied this.

Rights groups and social ⁠media posts reported protests in a number of cities late on Friday.

Reuters could not verify all the reports of unrest, arrests or deaths.

Trump spoke a few days after he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime advocate of military action against Iran, and warned of fresh strikes if Tehran resumed nuclear or ballistic work.

This grab taken on January 2, 2026, from UGC images posted on social media on December 31, 2025, shows protestors attacking a government building in Fasa, in southern Iran on December 31, amidst spontaneous nationwide protests driven by dissatisfaction at the country’s economic stagnation

Iran’s biggest ⁠protests in three years over ⁠economic hardship have turned violent across several provinces, ‍leaving multiple people ⁠dead. Pictured: Shopkeepers and traders protest in the street against the economic conditions and Iran’s embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025

The Israeli and US strikes in June last year have cranked up the pressure on Iranian authorities, as have the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, a close Tehran ally, and the Israeli pounding of its main regional partner, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Iran continues to support groups in Iraq that have previously fired rockets at US forces in the country, as well as the ‍Houthi group that controls much of northern Yemen.

‘American people should ⁠know that Trump started the adventurism. They ought to watch over their soldiers,’ said Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council and a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

During the latest unrest, Iran’s elected President Masoud Pezeshkian has struck a conciliatory tone, pledging dialogue with protest leaders over the cost-of-living crisis, even as rights groups said security forces had fired on demonstrators.

Speaking on Thursday, before Trump threatened US action, Pezeshkian acknowledged that failings by the authorities were behind the crisis.