Almost 500 protesters have died in the violent, anti-regime uprising in Iran — as President Trump weighs military strikes on the oppressive theocracy.
At least 490 demonstrators have been killed in the two weeks of unrest that has engulfed the Islamic Republic, according to alarming figures from US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA).
In addition, 48 security personnel have lost their lives and 10,600 people have been arrested, the rights group said.
HRANA’s latest death count more than triples its previous casualty figures provided just hours earlier, in which the NGO said 162 had died. The Post is unable to independently verify the figures.
The protests began Dec. 28 after economic concerns reached a fever pitch in Iran, where prices have spiked and the currency has plunged, but they have morphed into the biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.
Demonstrators took to the streets in massive numbers, turning their ire against the ruthless regime that has held power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Trump has repeatedly vowed that the US would intervene militarily if the Iranian government responded to the protests by committing acts of violence against its citizens.
“You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too,” Trump warned last week.
In response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Trump of having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” in remarks aired Friday.
“[The terrorists] are ruining their own streets … in order to please the president of the United States because he said that he would come to their aid,” Khamenei told a crowd of supporters shouting “Death to America!”
Tehran then turned up the heat when it threatened to respond to any US military strikes by targeting US military bases in the region.
The Trump administration launched a targeted bombing campaign against Iran in June, dropping at least six “bunker buster” bombs across three sites, including the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant, a fortified facility hidden nearly 300 feet beneath a mountain.
Officials are now evaluating several possible responses to the rapidly rising civilian death toll, including a massive aerial strike campaign on numerous Iranian military targets — though Washington has yet to reach consensus on a plan of action.
With Post wires
