<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A crackdown on nationwide protests in </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/iran" rel="" target="_blank" title="Iran"><span>Iran</span></a><span> has killed at least 538 people and even more are feared dead, activists said on Sunday (Monday AEST), while Tehran warned that the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="_blank" title="US"><span>US</span></a><span> military and Israel would be "legitimate targets" if America uses force to protect demonstrators.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 10,600 people have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous rounds of unrest in Iran in recent years.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said of those killed, 490 were protesters and 48 were members of security forces.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/iran-protests-donald-trump-threat-iran-warns-it-will-target-us-troops-and-israel-if-us-strikes-over-protests/86013902-907a-4d67-863a-0e8899326d45" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Iran warns it will retaliate if Trump orders strike over protests</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Iranian government has not offered overall casualty figures for the demonstrations.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran's security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country's capital and its second-largest city again on Sunday morning.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/iran-protests-hundreds-dead-in-crackdown-activists-say/3a4d312e-bb85-46d1-ba08-4115eb5dee61" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/six-killed-in-mississippi-suspect-charged-with-murder/5a50e5d9-487a-4462-ae4a-2e48bd48fc1b" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Six killed in Mississippi, suspect charged with murder</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>US President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="_blank" title="Donald Trump"><span>Donald Trump</span></a><span> has offered support for the protesters, saying on social media that "Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by either US or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has not indicated it has made any decisions. The massive ongoing US military deployment to the Caribbean has created another factor that the Pentagon and Trump's national security planners must consider.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Defiance in parliament</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The threat to strike the US military and Israel came during a parliamentary speech by Mohammad Baagher Qalibaf, the hard-liner speaker of the body who has run for the presidency in the past.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He directly threatened Israel, calling it "the occupied territory".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centres, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets," Qalibaf said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bushfires-victoria-death-longwood-fire/6d742b08-2d80-4c4c-974f-5d917941adac" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Body found after Longwood bushfire, blazes continue across Victoria</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Other politicians rushed the dais in parliament, shouting: "Death to America!"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It remains unclear how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after its air defences were destroyed during the 12-day war with Israel in June. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran's 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US military said in the Middle East it is "postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and US interests." </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran targeted US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June, while the US Navy's Middle East-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel, meanwhile, is "watching closely" the situation between the US and Iran, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorised to speak to journalists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The people of Israel, the entire world, are in awe of the tremendous heroism of the citizens of Iran," said Netanyahu, a longtime Iran hawk.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV mentioned Iran as a place "where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives," adding that "I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Protests in Tehran and Mashhad</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Online videos sent out of Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran's Punak neighbourhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit mobile phones. Others banged metal while fireworks went off.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The pattern of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of scattered, short-lived, and fluid gatherings, an approach shaped in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increased field pressure," the Human Rights Activists News Agency said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Reports were received of surveillance drones flying overhead and movements by security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city some 725 kilometres north-east of Tehran, footage purported to show protesters confronting security forces. Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 800 kilometres south-east of Tehran.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iranian state television on Sunday morning had correspondents appear on the streets in several cities to show calm areas, with a date stamp shown on screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Government rhetoric ratcheted up. Ali Larijani, a top security official, accused some demonstrators of "killing people or burning some people, which is very similar to what ISIS does," referring to the Islamic State group by an acronym.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>State TV aired funerals of slain security force members while reporting another six had been killed in Kermanshah. In Fars province, violence killed 13 people, and seven security forces were killed in North Khorasan province, it added. It showed a pickup truck full of bodies in body bags and later a morgue.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Even Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who had been trying to ease anger before the demonstrations exploded in recent days, offered a hardening tone in an interview aired on Sunday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"People have concerns, we should sit with them and if it is our duty, we should resolve their concerns," Pezeshkian said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"But the higher duty is not to allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The demonstrations began on December 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $US1, as the country's economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran's theocracy.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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