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Videos received by Iran International show mourners chanting “Death to Khamenei” on 21 Dey (Jan. 11, 2026) at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery during the funeral for Maryam and Majid Salehi Siavoshani, a young couple killed amid Iran’s national revolution protests. One attendee said the area around their burial site also contains the graves of many other young victims killed during the unrest.
Videos shared on social media show Iranians gathering in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 26 Dey (Jan. 16, 2026) to voice support for Iran’s national revolution, with demonstrators holding signs and chanting in solidarity with protesters inside Iran.
As accounts of automatic and heavy-weapons fire used to suppress protests continue to grow, a resident from Savadkuh told Iran International that on Thursday night, 18 Dey (Jan. 8, 2026), 14 people were killed in a single incident after IRGC forces opened direct fire. The source said roughly 500 people had gathered in one part of the town to protest the detention of a young woman and demand her release, when an IRGC armored vehicle moved toward the crowd and began shooting, leaving 14 dead at the scene. The witness added that others were wounded and some later died in hospital, amid broader reports that security forces used heavy weapons and sustained gunfire over Thursday and Friday, 18–19 Dey.
Hengaw, a human-rights group, reported that on the night of 18 Dey (Jan. 8, 2026), Milad (Mehdi) Lavasani—a youth football coach in Iran—was killed by live ammunition during protests in Tehran’s Narmak district. A relative told IranWire that Lavasani lived in Pasdaran but said he was going to see family in Narmak before joining friends to protest; the source said he met friends in the Dardasht area, where security forces first used tear gas and then opened sustained automatic fire after the crowd dispersed. The relative added the family learned he had been shot after a call to a family member’s phone, and that Lavasani was still alive when relatives reached him but died en route to hospital in a car.
A protester’s account from Sari, the capital of Mazandaran province, shared with Iran International, says the city—like other parts of Iran—is being controlled under what residents describe as “martial law,” with streets saturated by security and paramilitary forces. The source said main roads, including Farhang and Qارن streets and routes leading to Clock Square, are blocked from 4 p.m., while paramilitary personnel are stationed at virtually every intersection until 11 p.m., with many reportedly masked. Sari has been among the cities with significant protest turnout, where residents have chanted slogans such as “Death to Khamenei” and “Pahlavi will return.”
Multiple citizen accounts from across Iran say security controls have intensified after the large-scale crackdown and killings reported on Thursday and Friday, with daily movement and activity increasingly policed under what residents describe as “martial law.” A source in Aluni (Khanmirza county) said IRGC and Basij forces set up checkpoints from 22 Dey, searching vehicles and civilians. In Borujen, residents report large vans deployed in streets and soldiers checking phones. In Isfahan, witnesses say security forces patrol alleys, enter residential complexes, and remove stored CCTV footage to identify protesters; another resident said the city feels effectively under “martial law” after 6 p.m. Similar accounts came from Torbat-e Jam—where one resident said people are allowed out only to shop—and from Mashhad, where checkpoints reportedly stop cars and search phones for protest photos and videos.
Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani—Oscar winners for Best Animated Short for In the Shadow of the Cypress —wrote in a guest column for The Wrap that while no one welcomes foreign military intervention in their own country, when a government wages war on its people and mass killing becomes policy, non-intervention is no longer neutrality but complicity. They argued that decisive international action is a “moral responsibility” in such circumstances.
During Iran’s 1404 protests, Islamic Republic Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh claimed “rioters” had consumed “industrial drugs,” and even suggested some victims “died without any injuries” because they had overused substances. The narrative does not remove responsibility for the killings; it is presented as an attempt to deny and distort the reality of state repression. The pattern is not new: Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi made similar claims during the 1389 protests, saying those who took to the streets against his rule had taken “narcotic pills”—a recurring tactic aimed at discrediting protesters, dehumanizing victims, and rationalizing state violence.
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, wrote on X that when Iran’s Islamic Republic claims it will stop executing people, it is “plainly lying.” He added: “Either the oppressors must go, or the killing of protesters will continue.”
Iranian outlets reported that Persepolis player Reza Shekari was detained at Tehran’s international airport after the team returned from a training camp in Qatar, and later released following questioning. Iran International said it first reported the detention, while IRGC-linked Fars alleged the case stemmed from an Instagram story Shekari posted on 18 Dey reacting to a state TV host who mocked Prince Reza Pahlavi and protesters—an allegation framed by Fars as a “death threat.”
Abbas Araghchi, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister, held a call with China’s foreign minister to discuss Iran’s crackdown on domestic protests, according to reports. Araghchi also raised the Trump administrations reported 25% tariff measure targeting countries that trade with Iran.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Newsmax interview that Treasury is seeing “millions—tens of millions of dollars” being wired out of Iran and “snuck out” by the country’s leadership, describing it as “rats fleeing the ship.” He argued the current instability is a direct outcome of President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign and signaled Washington is tracking these flows to increase pressure on Iran’s financial networks.