Targeting children: injured teen shot during protest, killed after arrest

US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to reach an agreement with Washington but warned there would be “consequences” if talks fail, as US and Iranian officials prepare to meet in Geneva.

"So I'll be involved in those talks indirectly, and they'll be very important. We'll see what can happen. Typically, Iran's a very tough negotiator. They're good negotiators or bad negotiator. I would say they're bad negotiators, because we could add a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential, and we had to send the B2s. I hope, I hope they're going to be more reasonable. They want to make a deal," Trump told reporters on Monday aboard Air Force One.

Asked if this looks like a near to impossible deal, he replied: “I think they want to make a deal. I don't think they want the consequences of not making a deal. They want to make a deal.”

Human rights investigators say evidence indicates Sam Afshari was alive when security forces detained him in the city of Karaj, but was later killed by a gunshot wound to the head consistent with an execution carried out after his arrest.

“The bullet entered through the back of his head and exited through his face," Shahin Milani, IHRDC Executive Director told Iran International.

"The injury he sustained during the protests was not the shot that killed him,” Milani said.

Before leaving to join the protests, Sam sent a final message to his father on Jan 7.

“Dad, don’t tell mom anything. I’m going to fight for my rights. Iran is in danger. Please don’t tell my mother.”

His father, Parviz Afshari, who lives in Germany, would spend days searching for answers after his son disappeared.

According to Milani, testimony gathered from the family indicates that Sam’s initial injury during the protests was not fatal.

Residents living nearby Taleghani Square in Karaj saw that Sam had been wounded and attempted to bring him inside to help. Before they could do so, security forces arrived and dragged him away while he was still alive, according to his father’s account.

"The inhuman repressive forces dragged my son," Parviz told IRHDC in a video recording.

After that, he vanished.

“When his family eventually recovered his body, it was clear he had been shot again,” Milani said.

Where the fatal shooting occurred remains unclear. Sam’s father received conflicting accounts — one suggesting it may have happened at a medical facility and another claiming detainees were shot while being transported. Investigators say those details cannot yet be independently confirmed, but the available evidence indicates he was killed after arrest.

Sam's father described him as an exceptionally talented teenager — a computer science prodigy, a competitive swimming champion and fluent in multiple languages.

Milani said interviewing the father was deeply personal, underscoring how the profile of victims in Iran has changed over time.

“The father is nearly my age,” Milani said. “It forces you to realize that the young people being killed today are children who could have been our own.”

Sam Afshari’s case is part of a broader pattern emerging from Iran’s January crackdown, during which students and minors were among those killed. An Iranian teachers’ union has published the names of roughly 200 students killed during the protests, describing the list as both a record of loss and a demand for accountability.

At least 24 children, including a three-year-old, were killed by direct fire from security forces during Iran’s nationwide protests, according to the HANA Human Rights Organization. The group said it confirmed the identities of the children through on-the-ground research and cross-checking multiple sources.

HANA said the shooting of children was not an isolated incident but part of a systematic pattern, with gunfire in many documented cases directed at vital parts of the body.

For Sam's father - the loss is already painfully clear — a teenager who left home believing he was fighting for his future and never returned.

Sam had been preparing to join him in Germany later this year — a plan that ended before it could begin.

New details from eyewitnesses and medical staff in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman indicate that security forces opened fire and killed dozens of protesters attempting to reach a statue of slain IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in early January.

Witnesses said the violence unfolded on the evening of January 8 around Azadi Square, where one of the country’s most prominent monuments to Soleimani stood.

Read the full article here.

Security forces raided the village of Chenar in Asadabad county, Hamedan province, arresting hundreds of residents after surrounding the area early Monday, people familiar with the matter told Iran International.

The raid began at around 4:30 a.m., involving dozens of armored vehicles as well as several minibuses and vans, sources said. Forces also deployed four DShK heavy machine guns on the rooftops of some homes across the village.

Sources said detained residents were paraded through the city in vehicles fitted with cage bars before being transferred to the Asadabad police station.

Read the full article here.

Iranian journalist Kianoush Darvishi was arrested on Monday after being summoned to the prosecutor’s office and was transferred to Tehran Greater Prison, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.

Sources close to his family said Darvishi is the sole caregiver for his mother, who has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Darvishi wrote on X on February 3 that Iran’s cyber police had contacted him and summoned him over stories he posted on social media. He also said the cyber police froze his bank accounts without referring the case to court and solely by sending a letter.