The images published by state television overnight showed what it said were burning buses, cars and motorbikes as well as fires at metro stations and banks. It accused the People's Mujahedin Organisation, an opposition faction that splintered off after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and also known as the MKO, of being behind the unrest. 

A state television journalist standing in front of the fires on Shariati Street in the Caspian Sea port of Rasht said "this looks like a war zone - all the shops have been destroyed

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted protesters in a speech aired Friday by state television.

The 86-year-old paramount ruler of Iran said that protesters are "ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy," referring to US President Donald Trump.

The crowd cheered: "Death to America!"

(AP)

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will give a speech in a few minutes on "the terrorist actions" in the country, Iranian state TV reported on Friday, as protests over economic hardships continued around the country.

January 6: Protesters conduct a sit-in at Tehran's Grand Bazaar until security forces disperse them using tear gas. The death toll rises to 36, including two members of Iranian security forces, according to HRANA. Demonstrations have reached over 280 locations in 27 of Iran's 31 provinces.

January 3: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says “rioters must be put in their place,” in what is seen as a green light for security forces to begin more aggressively putting down the demonstrations. Protests expand to more than 170 locations in 25 provinces, with at least 15 people killed and 580 arrested, HRANA reports.

January 2: US President Donald Trump raises the stakes, writing on his Truth Social platform that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.” The warning, only months after American forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites, includes the assertion, without elaboration, that: “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.” Protests, meantime, expand to reach more than 100 locations in 22 of Iran's 31 provinces, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

January 1: The protests' first deaths are officially reported, with authorities saying at least seven people have been killed. The most intense violence appears to be in Azna, a city in Iran’s Lorestan province, where videos posted online purport to show objects in the street ablaze and gunfire echoing as people shouted: “Shameless! Shameless!” The semiofficial Fars news agency reports three people were killed. Other protesters are reported killed in Bakhtiari and Isfahan provinces while a 21-year-old volunteer in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force was killed in Lorestan.

December 30: As protests spread to include more cities as well as several university campuses, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with a group of business leaders to listen to their demands and pledges his administration will “not spare any effort for solving problems” with the economy.

December 31: Iran appoints Abdolnasser Hemmati as the country's new central bank governor. Officials in southern Iran say that protests in the city of Fasa turned violent after crowds broke into the governor's office and injured police officers.

December 29: Central Bank head Mohammad Reza Farzin resigns as the protests in Tehran spread to other cities. Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital.

December 28: Protests break out in two major markets in downtown Tehran, after the Iranian rial plunged to 1.42 million to the US dollar, a new record low, compounding inflationary pressure and pushing up the prices of food and other daily necessities. The government had raised prices for nationally subsidised gasoline in early December, increasing discontent.

Turkish Airlines on Friday cancelled its five flights to the Iranian capital Tehran, which has been rocked by protests against the rising cost of living, according to the Istanbul Airport app.

Five other flights operated by Iranian airlines have also been cancelled, according to the airport app.

(AFP)

As protests over economic distress paralyse Iran's law and order situation, a video has emerged showing a cop being killed by unknown assailants in a drive-by shooting in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Unrest broke out in Iran last month after merchants in Tehran staged a protest against rising prices and the collapse of the rial, triggering a wave of similar actions in other cities.

The demonstrations have spread to at least 25 of Iran's 31 provinces, leaving dozens killed, including personnel from security forces.

On Thursday, a clip went viral showing an unidentified assailant opening fire on a cop car until it veers off the road and crashes. The video has been shot from the assailant's vehicle, who is seen leaning out of the window with only the tip of the gun visible and constantly firing at the cop car.

"I am proud of each and every one of you who took over the streets across Iran on Thursday night. You saw how a massive crowd forces the repressive forces to retreat. Those of you who were hesitant, join your fellow compatriots on Friday night, and make the crowd even larger so that the regime's repressive power becomes even weaker," Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi wrote in a social media post.

The Iranian monarchy was abolished in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution, forcing the royal family into exile. After his father's death in exile in 1980, Reza Pahlavi declared himself the rightful heir, styling himself as Reza Shah II.

Reza Pahlavi is a leading opposition figure to the Islamic Republic, though he holds no official position in Iran. In 2013, he co-founded the Iranian National Council to help unify opposition groups.

Reza Pahlavi was born on October 31, 1960, in Tehran, Iran. He is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Farah Pahlavi (Farah Diba). He was officially named crown prince in 1967 during his father's coronation. He was educated at a private school inside the royal palace, reserved for the imperial family.

Pahlavi is a trained pilot and flew his first solo flight at the age of 11. In 1978, he moved to the United States for pilot training with the Imperial Iranian Air Force.

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi went on to call for European leaders to join US President Donald Trump in promising to "hold the regime to account."

"I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen," he added. "Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced."

Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past-particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn't clear whether that's support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi had called for demonstrations at 8 pm local time on Thursday and Friday. When the clock struck, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said.

The chants included "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to the Islamic Republic!" Others praised the shah, shouting, "This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!" Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.

"Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication," Pahlavi said. "It has shut down the Internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals."

The protests against Iran's Islamic regime, led by Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, have intensified in Tehran, with Iranians, angered by a soaring cost of living amid a flailing economy and crackdowns by security forces, taking to the streets, shouting slogans against the ruling theocratic regime.

Iran's government under President Masoud Pezeshkian cut off the country from the internet and international telephone calls as the nighttime demonstration intensified, and the head of the country's judiciary and its security forces warned of a harsh response amid calls for "freedom, freedom."

At least some of the protesters appeared to be heeding a protest call by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could have brought a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fuelling the protests that began over Iran's ailing economy.

As Iran intensified efforts to crack down on anti-government protests, a video of an elderly woman protestor defying the Islamic regime went viral, becoming a symbol of nationwide agitation driven by economic hardship and growing public anger. In the viral clip, the woman, who appears to be bleeding from her mouth, can be seen marching through the streets of Tehran and chanting anti-government slogans.

"I'm not afraid. I've been dead for 47 years," she shouts. It is not clear if the red liquid oozing from the woman's mouth was blood or if she was using some kind of paint as a symbol of dissent.

The current protests, the biggest wave of dissent in three years, began last month in Tehran's Grand Bazaar by shopkeepers condemning the currency's free fall. Unrest has since spread nationwide amid deepening distress over economic hardships, including rocketing inflation driven by mismanagement and Western sanctions, and curbs on political and social freedoms.

President Donald Trump on Thursday warned Iran's government against harming protesters, stating that the US would intervene if innocent people were killed amid the ongoing demonstrations in the Middle Eastern country.

During an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump said, "If they do anything bad to these people, we're going to hit them very hard," reiterating a similar warning he had issued on social media last week.

Commenting on the scale of the unrest, he added that "the enthusiasm to overturn the regime has been incredible."