Name: Iran protesters defy crackdown as videos show violent clashes | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-01-11T16:53:56.000Z
Duration: 14 min 30 s
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We start with the latest from Iran because in the last hour, the country's Parliament speaker has warned that any attack by the United States over the country's ongoing protests would lead to Tehran striking back against Israel and regional US Bases as what he called legitimate targets.

These are some of the pictures that state TV showed as Parliament debated what to do.

Now US Media is reporting that President Trump has been briefed on new options for military strikes against Iran in response to the killing of protesters inside Iran.

Hundreds of people have been reportedly killed or wounded by Iran's security forces over the past three days as details of the violence against protesters emerge.

Despite an Internet blackout, the unrest is causing major issues for Iran's medical system.

Staff at three hospitals have told the BBC their facilities are overwhelmed with dead or injured patients.

BBC Persian says It's verified some 70 bodies were brought to just one hospital on Friday.

The protests began in late December, sparked by Iran's worsening economic situation.

Our first report this hour is from our World News correspondent Joe Inwood.

Are we seeing unrest turn into revolution?

These protests, which began over rising prices, have spread right across Iran.

This footage is from the city of Mashhad in Iran's northeast.

We don't know exactly when it was filmed, but it is recent.

Huge crowds took to the streets, braving the bitter cold and threats of state violence.

The death toll is rising in just a single hospital.

BBC Persian verified 70 bodies on one night.

Listen to the sound and how they're hitting people.

They run for their lives as security forces open fire.

There are reports of power cuts in the capital.

We know for sure that the Internet and phones have been blocked, but people want their voices heard.

People are hopeful now because this time everyone is united by concern for their livelihoods, their income and their future.

This is why they have come out together with one voice to bring this to an outcome.

This is the man the protesters want to see removed from power.

Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has called the protesters vandals.

Here, a building burns in the city of Yazd, but it's not random.

This site was linked to a state foundation widely accused of corruption.

Iran's prosecutor general announced that any protesters could be charged as enemies of God and face the death penalty.

But as the regime's response hardens, they will know the threats they face are not Only internal.

We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened military strikes if protesters are killed, and

last night posted on social media that Iran is looking at freedom perhaps like never before.

These protests present a threat to the regime unlike anything seen in years.

Much of the youthful population of this country seem to have decided they have had enough.

But the government here was formed in revolution.

If it ends the same way, it could come at a heavy price.

Joe Inwood, BBC News Retired Army General David Petraeus, who was also the former CIA director and who led allied forces in Iraq during the 2007 search before later commanding US forces in Afghanistan, told us what the US can do without getting boots on the ground in Iran.

You can, all the way from diplomatic and informational.

Even just getting Starlink dishes in on the ground would help them communicate with each other and with the outside world.

There can be economic sanctions of various types against individuals, against Iran's ability to export oil.

And then of course, there are many military options.

And I was also the former commander of U.S.

central Command, which is the greater Middle east, that would be the regional combatant command that undoubtedly has been developing the menus of options for the president and others to consider.

There can certainly be strikes on the headquarters of the security force organizations that are violently putting down these protests, these demonstrations that have been killing the people in very substantial numbers.

He could go after the missile capability that they have, which of course was heavily damaged during the Israeli strikes against Iran and which concluded with a US Substantial bombing as well.

They've been trying to reconstitute those missile arsenals that would be useful.

It could prevent some of the retaliation that might be of a concern.

Again, a number of different activities that wouldn't require boots on the ground, many of which could even be done with unmanned systems, cruise missiles and the like.

David Petraeus, well, Bahman Kalbasi is from BBC Persian and gave us this update on the latest from inside Iran.

We have images and we have eyewitnesses both in the medical staff community and protesters across the cities that these protests have been going on.

And the picture it gives us is one of extreme horror, bodies piling up in centers outside in the outskirts of Tehran and other cities in the hospitals.

And the numbers are growing and the hospital staff are overwhelmed.

The fact that the communication has been cut to this in the severe manner that has happened in the last 60 hours almost means Even doctors can't reach other doctors to ask for them to show up at the hospital because their needs is so severe.

So the numbers, obviously we don't have an exact, but

hundreds have been killed or injured, brought into these hospitals and most of them with live ammunition.

There's images of families trying to identify the bodies of their loved ones.

There are reports that the government doesn't even allow them to bury them.

The other is one of jaw dropping bravery because despite the digital blackout and despite these mass shootings and killings of protesters, there are still ongoing protests that have been happening as late as a few hours ago in Tehran and other cities which indicate that these protesters, knowing the risk that it carries, which clearly includes their lives, are still coming out and the government has still as yet to managed to crack down fully and end these protests.

Are the protesters hoping that President Trump will get involved?

It is hard to gauge everybody's opinion and Iran is not a monolith and people have very different opinions about what should happen.

Obviously there is wide agreement and a larger scale protest as a sign of it, that they want this regime gone and how it should be gone.

Obviously they've taken the matter to their own hands and risking their lives by coming out.

But there are obviously many who would welcome some sort of a foreign assistant being in a form of Starlink, giving people more easy access to the Internet, all the way to targeting leadership with military intervention.

Not everybody agrees that these are productive, especially when it comes to military intervention.

Many worry that it will lead to the regime hardening its position even more and possibly hit targets in the Middle east and this turning into some sort of a massive war which will then distract from what the protesters want.

Without the foreign help, how could they overcome a extremely brutal crackdown by the regime that is armed to the teeth?

So the reality of these protesters, they know what they don't want.

But how do we get to that place varies depending on who you speak to.

Bahman, I know it's difficult, but you have covered other protests that have taken in Iran.

It is really the million dollar question, but

it is different from the other protests that I've covered and I've lived through.

It is large scale, it's historic, it is across the country, it's across demographics, and

it has faced perhaps the most brutal, the most bloody crackdown in the last 72 hours and it hasn't died down yet.

So that should tell us that we are in for possibly a different outcome than the previous protests.

But does it mean that we'll see a smooth transition to a regime change?

Certainly that's something that nobody would bet on at this point.

Sahar Razavi is the director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Study center at California State University.

She gave me her assessment of what's going on inside Iran.

Just as Bahman Khalwassi has shared, this started as a relatively Just as all protests in Iran begin, it began with a spark that turned into large scale demands for a complete transformation of the system.

The last time there was an Internet blackout of this scale during a protest was during bloody Obon in 2019.

And by the time the Internet turned back on, estimates range from the very low end, 200 something, to the more likely ended around 1500 according to a Reuters report, had been killed by the government.

So when we see Internet blackouts, we become very concerned.

Even in spite of the fact that there are images and reports coming out from Iran from on the ground.

My assessment is that this is it may have begun as a slightly smaller, smaller scale protest than the Woman Life freedom Movement in 2022, but

it has quickly ballooned out to bring in more and more sectors of society, including labor unions, students, people in rural and urban areas, sectors of society that have typically not been as engaged in protests.