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Rights groups accused Iranian security forces of shooting at demonstrators as the death toll mounted on Thursday from a crackdown on economic protests and a watchdog reported an internet blackout across the Islamic republic.Twelve days of protests have troubled the clerical authorities under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel.US President Donald Trump meanwhile threatened on Thursday to take severe action against Iran if its authorities “start killing people”, warning Washington would “hit them very hard”.The movement, which originated with a shutdown on the Tehran bazaar on December 28 after the rial plunged to record lows, has spread nationwide and is now being marked by larger-scale demonstrations.Videos on social media showed that protests were again taking place Thursday. A large crowd was seen gathering on the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard in the northwest of capital Tehran, according to social media images verified by AFP, while other images showed a crowd demonstrating in the western city of Abadan.Local media and official statements have reported at least 21 people, including security forces, killed since the unrest began, according to an AFP tally. On Wednesday, an Iranian police officer was stabbed to death west of Tehran “during efforts to control unrest”, the Iranian Fars news agency said.But raising its own toll based on verified deaths, the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said security forces had killed at least 45 protesters, including eight minors.The NGO said Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the demonstrations began, with 13 protesters confirmed to have been killed. “The evidence shows that the scope of the crackdown is becoming more violent and more extensive every day,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding hundreds more have been wounded and more than 2,000 arrested.Online watchdog Netblocks said on Thursday that “live metrics show Iran is now in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout”. – ‘Utmost restraint’ -Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian called for “utmost restraint” in handling demonstrations, saying “any violent or coercive behaviour should be avoided”.German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, meanwhile, condemned the “excessive use of force” against protesters.With the protests now spreading across Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said rallies had taken place in 348 locations in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and a key exiled opposition figure, urged major new protests on Thursday.Before the blackout, he warned that the “frightened” authorities could cut internet access to prevent information filtering out.Iraq-based Iranian Kurdish opposition parties called for a general strike on Thursday in Kurdish-populated areas in western Iran.The Hengaw rights group said the call had been widely followed in some 30 towns and cities, posting footage of shuttered shops in the western provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan.It accused authorities of firing on demonstrators in Kermanshah and the nearby town of Kamyaran to the north, injuring several protesters, as well as cutting the internet in the region.HRANA also posted footage it said showed security forces firing on protesters with handguns in Kermanshah.IHR said a woman protester was shot directly in the eye during a protest late Wednesday in Abadan.Protesters in Kuhchenar in the southern Fars province cheered overnight as they pulled down a statue of the former foreign operations commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in January 2020, in a video verified by AFP.- ‘Unlawful force’ -Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the clerical leadership, including “Pahlavi will return” and “Seyyed Ali will be toppled”, in reference to Khamenei.The movement has also spread to universities and final exams at a major university in Tehran, the Amir Kabir university, have been postponed for a week, according to ISNA news agency.The protests are the biggest in Iran since the last major protest wave in 2022-2023 which was sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.Rights groups have also accused authorities of resorting to tactics including raiding hospitals to detain wounded protesters.”Iran’s security forces have injured and killed both protesters and bystanders,” said Amnesty International, accusing authorities of using “unlawful force”. 

Chinese and Iranian warships were docked off South Africa’s main navy base Thursday ahead of exercises that officials said were also meant to involve Russia.The January 9-16 “Will for Peace” drill hosted by South Africa risks further straining its ties with the United States, which is in dispute with many of the countries taking part.AFP journalists saw two Chinese ships in Cape Town’s False Bay harbour on Wednesday, joined by an Iranian vessel on Thursday. South African navy officials said warships from Russia were also expected to take part in the China-led exercises.The drill was focused on the “safety of shipping and maritime economic activities”, the South African defence force said in December when it announced the manoeuvres.It was intended to “deepen cooperation in support of peaceful maritime security initiatives,” it said.The statement said the exercise would involve navies from BRICS countries.BRICS, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, more recently, Indonesia. The joint drills — previously known as Exercise Mosi — were initially scheduled for November 2025 but were postponed due to a clash with the G20 summit in Johannesburg.South Africa’s Democratic Alliance (DA), a member of the ruling unity government, said parliament had not been “properly briefed” on the drills, including cost, command structure and diplomatic consequences. “South Africa’s defence and foreign policy must be transparent, constitutional, and principled and certainly not being quietly reshaped through military exercises that contradict our stated neutrality and damage our standing in the world,” DA spokesperson on defence, Chris Hattingh, said in a statement. The centre-right party — which joined government after the African National Congress lost its majority in 2024 due to voter disillusionment with corruption and mismanagement — vowed to demand full transparency in parliament.President Donald Trump has accused countries in the BRICS group of emerging nations of “anti-American” policies.South Africa has drawn US criticism for its close ties with Russia and a range of other policies, including its decision to bring a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over the Gaza war.South Africa’s military was criticised for hosting naval exercises with Russia and China in 2023 that coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.The three countries first conducted joint naval drills in 2019.

Clashes between Syrian government personnel and Kurdish forces raged into the night Thursday on the third day of fighting, as Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi warned the violence undermined talks with Damascus.Both sides have traded blame over who started the violence on Tuesday, which comes as implementation stalls on a deal to merge the Kurds’ administration and military in the northeast into the government.The worst violence in Aleppo since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power has also highlighted regional tensions between Turkey, which says it is ready to support Syria’s authorities, and Israel, which condemned what it described as attacks against the Kurds.An AFP correspondent reported fierce clashes across the Kurdish-majority Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into the night, including the sound of artillery shelling.”We’ve gone through very difficult times… my children were terrified,” said Rana Issa, 43, whose family fled Aleppo’s Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood earlier Thursday under sniper fire.”Many people want to leave” but are afraid of the shooters, she told AFP.State television, citing a civil defence official, said some 16,000 people fled the two neighbourhoods on Thursday, with at least 21 people dead over three days, according to government and Kurdish force figures.A government source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the army started entering the outskirts of Sheikh Maqsud after an agreement with residents from non-Kurdish clans.Abdi — who leads the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — said attacks on Kurdish areas “undermine the chances of reaching understandings”, days after he visited Damascus for talks on the March integration deal.Earlier Thursday, state news agency SANA, citing a military source, said the army launched “intense and concentrated bombardment towards SDF positions” in the two Kurdish districts.A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until late Friday, while AFP correspondents said shops, universities and schools remained closed and civilians fled the two Kurdish neighbourhoods via safe corridors before an afternoon deadline.- Turkey, Israel -The European Union, whose top officials are due to visit Syria on Friday, called on “all sides to exercise restraint, protect civilians and seek a peaceful and diplomatic solution”.A Turkish defence ministry official said that “should Syria request assistance, Turkey will provide the necessary support”.Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since the December 2024 toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey, a close ally of the new Syrian government, had been locked in “intensive consultations” with Damascus and the United States to resolve the deadlock. Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meanwhile said that “attacks by the Syrian regime’s forces against the Kurdish minority… are grave and dangerous”.Israel and Syria are in talks to reach a security agreement and this week agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.Israel bombed Syrian forces in July when they clashed with the Druze community in the country’s south, saying it was acting to defend the minority, who are also present in Israel.- ‘No to war’ -The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.The March integration agreement was to be implemented last year, but differences between the sides including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule have stymied progress.Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that “Aleppo is the SDF’s most vulnerable area”.”Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support,” he said.He warned that if the hostilities spiral, “a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria’s stability”.In Qamishli in the Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people protested against the Aleppo violence, AFP correspondents said. “We call on the international community to intervene,” said protester Salaheddine Cheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading “no to war” and “no to ethnic cleansing”.In Turkey, several hundred people protested in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir decrying the Syrian army attacks, AFP correspondents there said.

Syria’s military heavily bombed Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo on a third day of fighting as Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi warned the violence undermined talks with Damascus.The government and Kurdish forces have traded blame over who started the fighting on Tuesday, which comes as implementation stalls on a deal to merge the Kurds’ administration and military in the northeast into the new government.The worst violence in Aleppo since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power has also highlighted regional tensions between Turkey, which says it is ready to support Syria’s authorities, and Israel, which condemned what it described as attacks against the Kurds.”We’ve gone through very difficult times… my children were terrified,” said Rana Issa, 43, whose family fled Aleppo’s Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood under sniper fire.”Many people want to leave” but are afraid of the shooters, she told AFP.State television, citing a civil defence official, said some 16,000 people had fled the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods on Thursday, with at least 17 people dead over three days, according to government and Kurdish force figures.Abdi — who leads the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — said attacks on Kurdish areas “during the negotiation process undermine the chances of reaching understandings”.Abdi visited Damascus on Sunday for further talks on the March deal on integrating his forces, but state media said the discussions were inconclusive.State news agency SANA, citing a military source, said the army launched “intense and concentrated bombardment towards SDF positions” in the two Kurdish districts on Thursday.A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until late Friday, while AFP correspondents said shops, universities and schools remained closed. Civilians fled the two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods via safe corridors while soldiers searched the men.- Turkey, Israel -Government bombardment resumed after an afternoon deadline passed for civilians to leave. The European Union, whose top officials are due to visit Syria on Friday, voiced “great concern” and called on “all sides to exercise restraint, protect civilians and seek a peaceful and diplomatic solution”.A Turkish defence ministry official said that “should Syria request assistance, Turkey will provide the necessary support”.Neighbouring Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since the December 2024 toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey, a close ally of the new Syrian government, had been locked in “intensive consultations” with Damascus and the United States to resolve the deadlock, which he blamed on the SDF’s “uncompromising stance”. Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meanwhile said that “attacks by the Syrian regime’s forces against the Kurdish minority… are grave and dangerous”.Israel and Syria are in talks to reach a security agreement and this week agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.Israel bombed Syrian government forces in July when they clashed with the Druze community in the country’s south, saying it was acting to defend the minority, who are also present in Israel.- ‘No to war’ -The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.The March integration agreement was to be implemented by the end of 2025, but differences between the sides including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule have stymied progress.Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that “Aleppo is the SDF’s most vulnerable area”.But “this isn’t an all-out conflict just yet. Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support”, he said.He warned that if the hostilities spiral, “a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria’s stability”.In the city of Qamishli in Syria’s Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people demonstrated on Thursday against the Aleppo violence, AFP correspondents said. “We call on the international community to intervene,” said protester Salaheddine Cheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading “no to war” and “no to ethnic cleansing”.In Turkey, several hundred people protested in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir decrying the Syrian army attacks, AFP correspondents there said.

Several hundred people demonstrated Thursday in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey’s Kurdish-majority main city, to protest against the Syrian army’s offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, AFP correspondents reported.The demonstrators called for “resistance” while marking the third day of deadly clashes in the northern Syrian city.”We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship,” Zeki Alacabey, a 64-year-old pensioner, told AFP.The violence, which has claimed at least 17 lives since Tuesday, is the most serious Aleppo has seen between Islamist-led authorities and Kurdish fighters since the transitional Syrian government took over in Damascus.The fighting broke out as both sides struggled to implement an agreement reached in March 2025 to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state following the toppling a year ago of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.The agreement has foundered on differences between the sides, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule.Thursday’s protesters brandished a large portrait of the longtime leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.Turkey, which has embarked on a peace process with PKK fighters, said meanwhile that it was ready to “support” the Syrian army against Kurdish forces, which hold several districts of Aleppo. Ankara accuses the PKK, which led a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state, of links to Kurdish forces in Syria, and on Tuesday demanded that Kurdish armed groups in its neighbour lay down their weapons. Demonstrators had already taken to the streets late Wednesday in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM, the country’s main pro-Kurdish party.DEM deputies protested Thursday in front of the Turkish parliament in Ankara, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.

Protesters denounced the Iranian authorities and staged strike actions Thursday in a new wave of demonstrations that have spread across the Islamic republic, as rights groups accused security forces of shooting on people in several locations.Twelve days of protests have shaken the clerical authorities under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel.The movement, which originated with a shutdown on the Tehran bazaar on December 28 after the rial plunged to record lows, has spread nationwide and is now being marked by larger-scale demonstrations.Authorities have blamed unrest on “rioters” and the judiciary chief has vowed there would be “no leniency” in bringing them to justice. On Wednesday, an Iranian police officer was stabbed to death west of Tehran “during efforts to control unrest”, the Iranian Fars news agency said.Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and a key exiled opposition figure, said the turnout on Wednesday had been “unprecedented” in this wave of demonstrations and called for major new protests later in the day.Iraq-based Iranian Kurdish opposition parties, including the Komala party which is outlawed by Tehran, called for a general strike on Thursday in Kurdish-populated areas in western Iran which have seen intense protest activity.- Statues attacked -With the protests now spreading across Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said protests had taken place in 348 locations in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.The Hengaw rights group, which focuses on Kurds and other ethnic minorities in western Iran, said the call for a strike had been widely followed in some 30 towns and cities, posting footage of shuttered shops in the western provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan.It accused authorities of firing on demonstrators in Kermanshah and the nearby town of Kamyaran to the north, injuring several protesters, as well as cutting the Internet in the region.HRANA also posted footage it said showed security forces firing on protesters with handguns in Kermanshah.Internet monitor Netblocks said there was a “loss of connectivity” in Kermanshah “amid rising casualties with indications of disruptions in multiple regions”.The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group (IHR) said a woman protester was shot directly in the eye during a protest late Wednesday in the western city of Abadan.”The footage provides further evidence of the excessive and unlawful use of force against civilians nationwide,” it said.Protesters in Kuhchenar in the southern Fars province cheered overnight as they pulled down a statue of the former foreign operations commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in January 2020 and is hailed as a national hero by the Islamic republic, in a video verified by AFP.- ‘Unlawful force’ -The protests are being characterised by larger-scale demonstrations, with images posted on social media showing a big crowd again demonstrating in Abadan on Thursday.Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the clerical leadership, including “this is the final battle, Pahlavi will return” and “Seyyed Ali will be toppled”, in reference to Khamenei.IHR on Tuesday gave a death toll of at least 27 protesters killed, including five teenagers under the age of 18, in the crackdown on the protests, warning the death toll would climb as more killings were verified.The Fars news agency said five “rioters” were killed on Wednesday.Local media and official statements have reported at least 21 people including security forces killed since the unrest began, according to an AFP tally.The movement has also spread to universities and final exams at a major university in Tehran, the Amir Kabir university, have been postponed for a week, according to ISNA news agency.In Tehran, security personnel with motorbikes and anti-riot vehicles were seen in some squares as shops and businesses remained open and traffic appeared to flow normally as of yet, according to AFP correspondents in the capital. The protests are the biggest in Iran for three years after the last major protest wave in 2022-2023 which was sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.Rights groups have also accused authorities of resorting to tactics including raiding hospitals to detain wounded protesters.”More than 10 days of protests have been met with unlawful force,” said Amnesty International. “Iran’s security forces have injured and killed both protesters and bystanders.”

Turkey’s military is ready to “support” Syria in its battle with Kurdish fighters in the northwestern city of Aleppo if Damascus asks for help, a defence ministry official said Thursday. And Turkey’s top diplomat said Ankara had been working “intensively” with Syrian and American officials in a bid to end the unrest. Deadly clashes erupted this week between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) after the two sides failed to reach a year-end deadline to merge the Kurdish fighters into the main Damascus military. In Ankara, the defence ministry official framed the clashes as a “counter-terror operation”, saying Turkey fully backed “Syria’s fight against terrorist organisations”. “Should Syria request assistance, Turkey will provide the necessary support,” he said, echoing a long-standing offer by Ankara to extend military support to its allies in Damascus’s new Islamist government. Turkey has long been hostile to the Kurdish SDF that controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of the banned Kurdish militant group PKK and a major threat along its southern border. It has repeatedly pushed for implementation of the so-called March 10 deal under which the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration and military would be integrated into the Syrian military and security apparatus. The Kurds are pushing for decentralised rule, an idea which Syria’s new authorities have rejected, blocking the deal’s implementation and causing building tension. – ‘Uncompromising stance’ -The unrest in Aleppo began on Tuesday with a string of armed attacks that claimed nine lives and prompted thousands to flee, with the two sides trading barbs over who was responsible. The toll now stands at 17 dead. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey had been locked in talks with Damascus and Washington to resolve the deadlock which he blamed on the SDF’s “uncompromising stance”. “Over the past two days, we have been involved in intensive consultations with the Syrian side and the Americans. God willing, this will be resolved without further bloodshed,” he said.”The SDF’s insistence on preserving what it controls at any cost constitutes one of the greatest obstacles to Syrian peace and stability,” he said, urging the force to “abandon terrorism and separatism”. Parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus also warned against Israeli involvement in the standoff after its top diplomat denounced the government operation “against the Kurdish minority in Aleppo” as “dangerous” for Syria’s minorities.  “Let me be very clear: Israel does not love the Kurds of Syria,” Kurtulmus said, warning against efforts “to turn people against each other on ethnic, religious, and sectarian grounds”.

Spain is ready to send troops to Palestine for peacekeeping “when the opportunity presents itself,” just as it is willing to deploy forces to Ukraine, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Thursday.”I will propose to parliament, when the opportunity presents itself, that we send peacekeeping troops to Palestine, once we can see how to advance this task of pacification,” he told a gathering of Spanish ambassadors in Madrid.”Of course, we have not forgotten Palestine and the Gaza Strip… Spain must actively participate in rebuilding hope in Palestine. The situation there remains intolerable.”Sanchez also reaffirmed Spain’s willingness to deploy troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, calling the current moment “critical” and “decisive” for achieving peace there.”If Spain has sent peacekeeping troops to many regions far from our country, how could we not send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, a European country?” he added.Russian President Vladimir Putin is against having any foreign peacekeeping troops on Ukrainian soil.The Spanish government, which recognised the State of Palestine in 2024, has been one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.At the end of last year, Sanchez called for raising awareness about the “dramatic situation” of Palestinians during a meeting in Madrid with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.