More than 3,000 people have died in Iran's nationwide protests, rights activists said Saturday, while a "very slight rise" in internet activity was reported in the country after an eight-day blackout.
The U.S.-based HRANA group said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, after residents said the crackdown appeared to have broadly quelled protests for now and state media reported more arrests.
The Iranian government has blamed much of the violence on people it says are armed rioters posing as protesters, labeling them "terrorists" and claiming that Israel and the U.S. were behind organizing them and responsible for many of the deaths of demonstrators and security forces.
The capital Tehran has been comparatively quiet for four days, said several residents reached by Reuters. Drones were flying over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday, said the residents, who asked not to be identified for their safety.
The protests erupted on Dec. 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic, culminating in mass violence late last week. According to opposition groups and an Iranian official, more than 2,000 people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Metrics show a very slight rise in internet connectivity in #Iran this morning" after 200 hours of shutdown, the internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on X. Connectivity remained around 2% of ordinary levels, it said.
The semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that internet service had been restored for some users. The ISNA news website said SMS service had also been reactivated.
A resident of Karaj, west of Tehran, reached by phone via WhatsApp, said he noticed the internet was back at 4 a.m. Saturday. Karaj experienced some of the most severe violence during the protests. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday was the peak of the unrest there.
A few Iranians overseas said on social media that they had also been able to message users in Iran early Saturday.
President Donald Trump, who had threatened "very strong action" if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran's leaders had called off mass hangings.
"I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been canceled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!" he posted on social media.
Iran had not announced plans for such executions nor said it had canceled them.
Iranian media affiliated with the government reported that several "ringleaders" of the unrest, including a woman named Nazanin Baradaran, had been taken into custody following what they described as "complex intelligence operations."
The reports claimed that Baradaran, operating under the pseudonym Raha Parham on behalf of Reza Pahlavi — the exiled son of Iran's last shah - had played a leading role in organizing the unrest. Reuters could not verify the report or her identity.
Pahlavi, a longtime opposition figure, has positioned himself as a potential leader in the event of regime collapse. He is widely reported to receive support from Israel. He has said he would seek to re-establish diplomatic ties between Iran and Israel if he were to assume a leadership role in the country.
In 2023 Pahlavi visited Israel, a close ally of Iran in his father's day and an implacable foe of the Islamic Republic now, and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.
Israeli officials have expressed support for Pahlavi.
In a rare public disclosure this month, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said in an interview with Israel's Army Radio that Israel had operatives "on the ground" in Iran and that some of "our people are operating there right now," referring to the protests. He described these assets as aimed at weakening Iran's capabilities, though he denied they were directly working to topple the regime.
The remarks were widely circulated and picked up by Iranian state media -- and many ordinary Iranians -- as evidence of Israeli involvement inside Iran during the protests.
In September, Israeli cabinet minister Gila Gamliel endorsed Pahlavi's push for regime change in Iran.
In the northeastern city of Mashhad, 22 "ringleaders" of the "riots" have been arrested, media said, along with more than 10 people suspected of killings and 50 accused of setting fire to public and private property.
In the northern province of Gilan, officials said 50 "ringleaders" had been detained and that the total number of arrests has exceeded 1,500.
State TV reported that two men linked to the Mujahedeen Khalq, an exiled Iranian opposition group that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, were arrested in Tehran.
The resident reached in Karaj also attributed some of the casualties to groups that Iran says are backed by Israel. Many Iranians say the weapons and methods used and the scale of attacks on public property far exceeded what ordinary protesters carried out in previous demonstrations.
Indian students and pilgrims returning from Iran said they were largely confined to their accommodations while in the country, unable to communicate with their families back home.
"We only heard stories of violent protests, and one man jumped in front of our car holding a burning baton, shouting something in the local language, with anger visible in his eyes," said Z Syeda, a third-year medical student at a university in Tehran.
India's External Affairs Ministry said Friday that commercial flights were available and that New Delhi would take steps to secure the safety and welfare of Indian nationals.
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