‘There are rivers of blood’: Iran horror emerges as phone lines restored

Washington: US President Donald Trump says he will “act accordingly” against Iran after receiving new intelligence on the estimated number of protesters killed by the Islamic dictatorship, with upwards of 2000 people now reported dead.

Trump cancelled talks with Iranian officials and displayed greater inclination to military action on Wednesday (AEDT) amid fresh reports of the regime’s brutal repression of Iran’s biggest anti-government demonstrations in many years.

“Iran is on my mind. When I see the kind of death that is happening over there ... We’re going to get some accurate numbers,” Trump said as he returned to Washington from Michigan about 9am AEDT. “The killing looks like it’s significant, but we don’t know yet for certain. I’ll know within 20 minutes, and we’ll act accordingly.”

Top national security officials convened at the White House, but there was no update about options presented to the president or any decisions.

Earlier, Trump told CBS News he had not heard reports about protesters being hanged, but if that were to occur, he would take “very strong action”.

“We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen … when they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging, we’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not going to work out good.”

In a social media post and again during his speech in Detroit, the president said he had cancelled US talks with Iranian officials. He also urged Iranians to continue and intensify their demonstrations, encouraging them to “take over your institutions”, and promising them: “Help is on its way.”

When asked by reporters, Trump declined to explain what that phrase meant, though in his speech he implied the help referred to his announcement of 25 per cent tariffs on countries that do business with Tehran.

The changing rhetoric came a day after the White House indicated a preference for diplomacy, while keeping military options on the table, including airstrikes against regime targets.

Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday AEDT that diplomacy was “always the first option for the president”, and that Tehran was privately delivering a different message to the administration from its hard-headed public rhetoric. “I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said.

Trump’s move to pause diplomatic efforts and promise “help” for demonstrators could indicate a hardening of his resolve, particularly as certain figures in Washington urge him to intervene using the US military.

Lindsey Graham, an interventionist Republican senator from South Carolina, said decisive action by Trump would be the tipping point for the Iranian regime and a death blow for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

“A massive wave of military, cyber and psychological attacks is the meat and bones of ‘help is on the way’,” Graham said on X. “What am I looking for? Destroy the infrastructure that allows the massacre and slaughter of the Iranian people, and take down the leaders responsible for the killing.”

Reuters reported that an Iranian official said about 2000 people had been killed so far during the protests, broadly matching claims by activists. A spokesman for the United Nations human rights office said Iranian sources indicated the number was in the hundreds, while Saudi-linked dissident channel Iran International claimed the toll was as high as 12,000.

The Islamic regime has cut off internet access in Iran and is attempting to jam Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, which protesters have been using to organise and communicate with the outside world. That makes assessing the death toll and full scale of the demonstrations difficult.

But with some phone services now restored, more reports were emerging from within the country. “I saw it with my own eyes – they fired directly into lines of protesters, and people fell where they stood,” one protester told the BBC.

Omid – in his early 40s and whose name the BBC changed for his safety – said security forces had opened fire at unarmed protesters in his city with assault rifles. “We are fighting a brutal regime with empty hands,” he said.

Medics in Iran say the healthcare system is on the brink of collapse.

“Dead bodies and injured people – men, women and children – are arriving in trucks, ambulances and private cars,” one medic near Tehran told London’s Telegraph.

“We cannot help everyone. Many died because we could not even visit them. Some of my colleagues have collapsed. We have shortages of everything … There are rivers of blood in hospitals here.”

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince and son of the deposed shah of Iran, is also among those urging Trump to intervene militarily. Pahlavi met with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, on the weekend, US news site Axios reported.

“The freedom of Iran is near,” Pahlavi told Iranians in a video message on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEDT). “We are not alone. Global assistance will arrive soon as well. Wait for my next messages.”

He told his followers that “all institutions and apparatuses responsible for the regime’s false propaganda and cutting off communications are considered legitimate targets”.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance rejected a Wall Street Journal report suggesting he was trying to convince Trump to pursue a diplomatic solution instead of using force, in contrast to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Vance’s office said he and Rubio were together presenting a suite of diplomatic and military options to the president, “without bias or favour”.

The US, which has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980, and already warns Americans against travelling to the country, issued another alert on Wednesday (AEDT) saying any American citizens in Iran “should leave now”.

The State Department alert cited escalating protests which could turn violent. Trump also said citizens of US allies in Iran should get out.

In Europe, governments summoned Iranian ambassadors to account for the regime’s brutality against its own people. The German Foreign Office called the Islamic Republic’s actions “shocking” in a statement on X.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the United Kingdom was preparing new sanctions targeting Iran’s finance, energy, transport and software industries.

“This latest conduct by the Iranian regime is no aberration. It is no outlier. It is all too in keeping with the fundamental nature and track record of this regime,” Cooper told the House of Commons.

“Just as they did in 2022, it is absolutely clear that the Iranian regime are trying to paint these protests as the result of foreign influence and instigation.

“They are using that accusation to try and whip up opposition to the protests amongst anti-Western Iranians, and to try and justify their vicious and sickening attacks on the ordinary civilians marching in the streets.”

The protests began on December 28 over the fall in value of Iran’s currency and have grown into wider demonstrations and calls for the fall of the clerical establishment.

Iran’s authorities have taken a dual approach by brutally cracking down on demonstrators while also calling protests over economic problems legitimate.

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