Iran crackdown intensifies under internet blackout as protests rage

Rights groups warn of lethal force, rising deaths as communications shutdown is enforced

- 

Man standing near burning vehicles during night of mass protests in Zanjan, Iran | AP

(AP)

RIGHTS groups expressed alarm on Saturday that Iranian authorities were intensifying a deadly crackdown under cover of an internet blackout on the biggest demonstrations in the Islamic republic in over three years after another night of mass protests.

The two weeks of protests have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, although supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expressed defiance and blamed the United States.