US State Department: cruelty toward victims’ families goes beyond repression

Information received by Iran International confirms that Ahmadreza Amani, a trainee lawyer, was killed on Thursday after being shot directly by government agents during protests in the city of Azna in Lorestan.

The head of the Yazd Bar Association, Mohammad Hossein Jafari, confirmed his killing during the protests and said he had written to the head of the judiciary calling for a thorough investigation.

Human rights lawyer Sina Yousefi wrote on X that Amani was 28 and was completing the second stage of his legal traineeship. A person close to the family told Iran International that Amani’s body has not yet been handed over, adding to pressure on relatives, and said security forces have begun pressuring the family to blame protesters for his death.

The determination of the Iranian public in the face of repression deserves international attention, the Persian-language page of the United States Department of State on X wrote as protests continue despite security force violence.

The post described the courage of Iranians as “undeniable,” saying people continue to protest and voice their demands despite violence by security forces. Arrests, beatings and even killings by security officials, it added, have failed to silence demands for welfare, dignity and basic rights, concluding that the public’s resolve in confronting repression warrants the world’s attention.

Investigations by Iran International show at least 44 protesters were shot with live ammunition or pellet guns and wounded during six days of demonstrations in Iran, with dozens more injured by baton beatings and assaults by security forces and plainclothes agents.

The figure covers only cases that Iran International was able to document through field reporting and interviews with protesters, their families and other sources, and does not include all those hurt.

Those shot were aged between 14 and 35, while people injured by beatings were mostly 15 to 40, with cases reported in cities including Azna, Fooladshahr, Kavar, Kouhdasht, Lordegan, Marvdasht and Nurabad in Lorestan.

Some of the injured were school-age girls and boys, with severe bruising reported and at least one case in which a victim’s teeth were broken.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz on Friday dismissed an Iranian letter urging the UN to condemn President Donald Trump’s remarks on protests.

“The Iranian regime’s whining to the UN ignores decades of sponsoring terrorism and crushing their own people,” Waltz said.

“America and [President Trump] stand firmly with Iranians yearning for freedom!”

Iran sent the letter on Friday after Trump said Washington was “locked and loaded” to intervene if Iranian authorities kill protesters.

In a message published on his Truth Social account, Trump warned that if Iran’s rulers kill peaceful protesters, the United States would act to save the Iranian people.

"If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."

Iran’s leaders rejected Trump’s warning, accusing Washington of violating the UN Charter and “inciting violence and terrorism,” according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Iran also warned in a letter to the UN that Tehran would “exercise its rights decisively” if attacked and hold the US fully responsible for any intervention.

Officials including Parliament Speaker Mobammad Bagher Ghalibaf and top security official Ali Larijani also threatened that US forces and bases in the region could become “legitimate targets” if Trump’s warning turned into military action.

Capital unrest

After a brief lull on Wednesday and Thursday, protests in the capital resumed in multiple districts, with crowds chanting against the ruling establishment as security forces deployed in large numbers and used tear gas and batons to disperse gatherings.

Protests were also held in dozens of other cities including the holy cities of Mashhad and Qom as well as Shiraz, Hamadan, and Zahedan, a city in Iran’s restive southeast which was n epicenter of protests in 2022.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says at least eight protesters have been killed nationwide since the latest wave of unrest began on Dec. 28.

Prince’s call

Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi urged Iranians to “take control of the streets” in Tehran and other major cities through a simultaneous mass presence and road blockades, telling supporters to move in small, cohesive groups from neighborhood streets toward central arteries.

The prince said a “million-strong” wave would overwhelm security forces and could prompt some to retreat or even join the people, describing such a takeover of the capital’s streets as an essential step toward bringing down the Islamic Republic.

Prominent activists

Several prominent Iranian dissidents including renowned filmmaker Jafar Panahi and jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi issued a joint statement calling for a peaceful transition away from the Islamic Republic, saying that Iran is at a critical juncture amid mounting economic and political pressures.

“We stand with the people to reclaim the right to a dignified life, freedom, justice, human dignity, and sovereignty over our own destiny,” the statement said, published on Mohammadi's official account on X.

The signatories, including figures such as dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, political prisoners Mostafa Tajzadeh and Rasoul Qadiyani, say a renewed wave of civil resistance “taking over the streets” reflects a national will to remove what they call the illegitimate regime and build a democratic order based on popular sovereignty, justice and normal relations with the world.