Author: Farnaz Fassihi
Published on: 09/01/2026 | 00:00:00

AI Summary:
Jan. 9, 2026 Tens of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets on Friday night in a second night of mass, nationwide antigovernment protests. Videos posted on BBC Persian Television showed thousands of people on the march in the capital, Tehran, drawing supporters from what residents said in interviews was a demographically diverse cross-section of working-class, middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the protesters as “rioters” doing bidding of the United States and Israel. On state television, an anchor warned that protesters could be risking their lives by taking to the streets. Amir Reza, 42, an engineer, said he could hear gunfire and the boom of so-called sound bombs. “People are saying we have nothing left to lose,” Mr. Kamrani said. The government shut down virtually all forms of communication on Friday, shuttering the internet, blocking telephone calls from abroad and disrupting domestic cellphone service. Even Iranian news agency websites, like the state-controlled news agency IRNA, went silent. The New York Times verified the video’s location by matching visual details with satellite imagery. A narrator in the video says, “They killed people, they killed people with war bullets” despite the information blackout, videos trickled throughout the evening from those inside Iran who had access to Starlink satellite connections. Iran plunges into an internet blackout, a day after the heads of Iran’s judiciary and its security services said they would take tough measures against anyone protesting. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Iranian supreme leader vowed that the government “will not back down” in the face of the protests, accusing demonstrators of being vandals who were trying to “please” President Trump.

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