Iran issues NOTAM closing its airspace to most flights

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi blamed Israel and foreign “terrorist elements” for unrest inside the country and rejected reports that Iranian security forces carried out mass killings of protesters, during a contentious interview with Fox News host Brett Baier.

Araghchi said violence during the unrest was not the result of state repression but clashes between security forces and foreign-backed groups seeking to provoke the United States into war with Iran. “It was a fighting between our security forces and terrorist elements,” he said, describing the events as “a full-scale internal war.”

Baier repeatedly pushed back, citing witness accounts from inside Iran describing snipers firing into crowds, high numbers of casualties and videos showing bodies being removed from the streets, saying such reports contradicted Tehran’s account.

Araghchi dismissed those accounts as false, saying: “The footages that you mentioned have not been seen in Iran and it was a misinformation campaign is going on at the same time.”

On the death toll, Araghchi rejected figures cited by opposition figures and exiled Prince Pahlavi or more that 12,000, saying fatalities were “only hundreds” and that higher numbers were exaggerated.

When asked will be there any hanging in any days to follow, Araghchi said: "there is no plan for hanging at all."

A US carrier strike group is being relocated from the South China Sea to the CENTCOM area of responsibility, according to reporting from News Nation.

Wall Street Journal Journalist Laurence Norman shared the latest findings from Amnesty International regarding security forces' response to anti-government protests in Iran.

"According to evidence gathered by Amnesty International, security forces positioned on the streets and rooftops, including of residential buildings, mosques and police stations, have repeatedly fired rifles and shotguns loaded with…" the post said, referencing a larger Amnesty report on the crackdown.

“At least two videos show security forces chasing and directly firing at fleeing protesters who appear to pose no threat warranting the use of force, let alone firearms or other prohibited weapons," the post said.

Iran’s pop diva and national icon Googoosh has urged US President Donald Trump to take urgent action in response to the crackdown on protests in Iran.

“I write to you as an Iranian artist who once lost her voice to the Islamic Republic,” Googoosh wrote a letter to Trump. “Today, I am pleading with you, Mr. President, to act on the promise you made.”

In the letter, which she shared on Instagram, Googoosh said “credible estimates suggest that between twelve thousand and twenty thousand lives have been taken in just a few days,” and called on Trump to “stand with the Iranian people,” work with Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, and take “urgent and decisive action.”

She criticized Iran’s leadership for decades of repression, writing that the country had chosen “war over welfare and ideology over life,” and said ordinary Iranians were now “crying out to you, asking for help as they face these ongoing crimes against humanity.”

Cloudflare’s threat-intelligence unit Cloudforce One says Tehran is targeting Instagram accounts using tools that allow the bulk extraction of follower lists and account activity.

The activity was observed amid a near-total internet blackout imposed for about a week following the outbreak of nationwide protests.