Iran warns US not to attack as protester death toll soars

Iran warned the US not to attack over protests that have rocked the country yesterday as Donald Trump weighed the options for a response from Washington and the reported death toll from the demonstrations soared into the hundreds.

- William Christou Beirut Deepa Parent and Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem

Protests in Tehran, where more demonstrations were expected last night as the authorities' crackdown continued

(PHOTOGRAPH: MAHSA/MIDDLE EAST IMAGES/AFP/GETTY)

At least 538 people have been killed in the violence surrounding demonstrations, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), including 490 protesters. The group reported that more than 10,600 people had been arrested by Iranian authorities.

Another rights monitor, the US-based Iran Human Rights group, said yesterday that at least 192 protesters had been killed.

Casualty figures varied between rights groups as they struggled to access people in a country hit by an internet blackout. But all are expected to be undercounts. The regime has not supplied its own figures and it was not possible to independently verify them.

The big rise in the reported death toll came as the authorities intensified their crackdown on the protests, now in their second week.

The brutal crackdown has raised the likelihood of a US intervention. Trump, who has said he will “rescue” protesters if the Iranian government killed them, reiterated his threat to intervene on Saturday as the protests raged. “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before.

The USA stands ready to help !!! ," the US president said on the Truth Social platform.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump would be briefed by his team tomorrow on options, which include military strikes, using secret cyber-weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to antigovernment sources.

Iranian officials bristled at the prospect of a US strike.

The speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that Israel and US interests in the Middle East would be "legitimate targets" if Washington struck Iran.