‘Shoot to Kill’: Accounts of Brutal Crackdown Emerge From Iran

‘Shoot to Kill’: Accounts of Brutal Crackdown Emerge From Iran

 ‘Shoot to kill’: Iran reveals brutal crackdown. Protests in Iran are now in their third week. A US-based rights group says the death toll from a crackdown by security forces has surpassed 2,400. And abroad,

 Iranian state television on Tuesday gave its first official acknowledgement of the death toll from the protests, quoting an official who said the death toll was higher than previously reported because of the increasing suffering of the victims.

However, the statement came after the rights group reported the toll. It also released footage, it said showed the aftermath of protests in several major cities.

The images showed buildings on fire, burnt-out cars, and damage to banks. They set fire to about 50 vehicles, buses, and private cars.

The government agencies were assured that help was on the way, and when asked,

What he meant by help was on the way. Trump refused to elaborate. The US president also said how many protesters had been killed in the recent protests

No one could give him an exact number. It’s a lot, but I’ve heard very low numbers and I’ve heard numbers that are very high. We’ll find out. We’re probably going to find out in the next 24 hours.

I think it’s a lot. Later,, in an interview with CBS, he warned that a deadly crackdown on protesters would bring a lot of problems to the country’s leadership.

We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran. And you know, if they want to protest, that’s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people,

and now you’re telling me about hanging people, we’ll see how that works for them. That’s not going to be good. Well, reports suggest that Israeli and Arab officials have privately advised

that the US refrain from large-scale attacks. They believe that the Iranian regime has not yet been weakened to the point where US military strikes would be the decisive blow that would bring it down.

There are also reports during the round that Trump envoy Steve Wittkoff has secretly met with the son of Iran’s deposed Shah Rezawi to discuss the ongoing protests in Iran.

As uncertainty over the US’s next move looms, Iran has filed a letter with the UN Security Council. In the letter, they allege violations of sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security.

The letter states that the US, along with Israel, bears direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the loss of innocent civilian lives, especially among the youth.

By the way, UGC photos posted on social media show dozens of bodies lying in the forensic diagnostic center in Tehran province, Karaj,

as grieving relatives search for their loved ones. To discuss this further, we are now joined live by Adrian Klemel. He is a fellow at the Arabian Peninsula Institute.

Adrian, it is always a pleasure to have you with us on World DNA. Oh, the help is on the way, and when you ask the US President what help is on the way,

he is not giving any more details. As of 10 days ago, Trump said we are locked and loaded and ready to go. And now, the first thing we see coming out of the US

is higher tariffs. Is the US fighting what it wants to do in Iran or with Iran at this time? Uh, great to see you, Siobhan.

And, um, that is a good question. I don't think they are fighting. Oh, I think they're again, you know, Trump's, I think he's just trying to get more reports from the Islamic Republic

about what's going on. Um, you know, he's worried about the death toll and the death toll, and he said that if

people start hanging, then he's going to take action. Well, you know, they've been killing people in the streets for two weeks now.

Um, you know, the low-ball estimate is about 2400. Other estimates are as high as you know, to be made up. And what shape is,

One of the things he's trying to do is to financially damage the government with maximum pressure, but that doesn't give the protesters space. Oh, one thing he's trying to do, and he's been able to get Starlink terminals.

One of the things you have is that he's trying to do is financially damage the government with as much pressure as possible, but that doesn't give the protesters a place to sit.

Oh, one thing he's trying to do, and he's been able to get Starlink terminals.

In the country, and that's the only reason we're getting video out of the Islamic Republic right now.

That was what he could do and the one thing that wasn't humiliated during the 12 days of fighting was to at least besiege or target two IRGC bases. And

The besieging bases are IRGC shock troops, in plain clothes, riding around on motorcycles with shotguns and batons,

and they're taking to the streets and killing most of the people. And Adrian, while you know, Iran is under a lot of pressure. Critics

argue that there may still be time before the government falls,

it is not yet at the point where it can be toppled with the kind of rising tensions we are seeing.

And the important thing is that these security forces are still loyal. And we have seen the Islamic Revolution.

Since 1979. Iranian A uthorities havespent money and um you know creating anelaborate and rather ruthless network ofcoercion and repression.

 Do you thinkthis situation is going to be umescalated further or do you think regimechange is still something we'll have towait and see if we progress towardsthat?

I ask Dick Shaw a big question and I think we are moving rapidly towards regime change. When I look at the past protests compared to

What we are seeing now, what we have seen is the Islamic Republic basically losing all of its proxies and Assad as president of his nuclear program in Syria from 2023 to October 8, 2023.

Oh, one place where and you are absolutely right is the security apparatus. It is multi-layered and it is something that has not really been affected.

Many people think that if this war had continued, the 12-day war would have gone on for another week. This was the next target package that was being hit to give these forces of oppression.

Opposition in some places. But, you know, the kraits will come back and say, "Well, then you are pushing for regime change instead." Well,

We're at the point now where, you know, Trump drew the line and he, you know, Obama made a mistake with Syria. He drew a red line

And then when the chemical weapons were used, he didn't enforce that red line. Trump can't make that mistake. He put that red line there and he needs to stick to it.

And the Iranian people are expecting that. Oh, Trump said they crossed all his red lines, but I just want to bring it back

to what you mentioned. You mentioned the 12-day war. Adrian, during that 12-day war, we think Iran suffered a lot, but Israel suffered.

Iran is not a nation that won't go down without a fight and it's very well armed. Do you think the US will take this very seriously?

Because if the US gets involved militarily, they have been saying to Iran over and over again that there will be a response and Israel will have to pay the price. All of these things are being reckoned with right now.

And I think the biggest reckoning that the US administration needs to look at is that these protests didn’t just start two weeks ago.

They’ve basically been going around the country since December 2017 until 2019 when they shut down the internet and killed 1,500 people. Okay.

The assassination of Masamuni in 2020 2022 and what happened and what happened and what we are seeing now with is that you know the government can think of itself as really strong

but they are in the weakest position that I have seen them in 47 years and this comes back to the Iran Iraq war that they are now much weaker than that

that they thank us for joining us at this time. It is a very rapidly evolving situation and oh the number of deaths is the most worrying

because as of yesterday we had figures like 650 coming out. Today we are already standing at 2,400. 20,000 is an estimate of 12,000. These are the deaths

that we are talking about. It is not just in random forms. We have to wait and see what actually comes out because the situation in Iran is really serious.

We are going to track this closely. This was Adrian Kell joining us on World DNA. Thank you.