Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as BBC sources and activists report hundreds of protesters have now been killed in an escalating government crackdown.
“Things here are very, very bad,” a source in Tehran said on Sunday. “A lot of our friends have been killed. They were firing live rounds. It’s like a war zone, the streets are full of blood. They’re taking away bodies in trucks.”
The BBC counted about 180 body bags in footage from near Tehran. The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified the deaths of 495 protesters and 48 security personnel nationwide.
Another 10,600 people have been detained over the fortnight of unrest, the agency says.
The US has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters, and President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US “stands ready to help” as Iran “is looking at FREEDOM”.
Trump did not elaborate on what the US was considering. He has been briefed on options for military strikes on Iran, an official told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.
