Iran mourns over deaths blamed on US and Israel

At least 42 security personnel have died during the ongoing unrest, according to local news agencies

Tehran has declared three days of mourning to honor victims of the deadly nationwide riots, which it called a “battle” against the US and Israel, the semi-official Iranian Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.

The worst protests in recent years shook Iran starting in late December, sparked by the sharp devaluation of the rial and the escalating economic crisis in the sanction-beset nation.

The unrest quickly spread to multiple cities, with arson and clashes resulting in numerous deaths among both Iranian security forces and civilian bystanders, according to local reports. Time magazine has said at least 200 people were killed, while Iranian state media put the toll in the dozens, including a similar number of security personnel who died during the riots.

”The Iranian nation has experienced firsthand how the urban terrorist criminals committed ISIS-like violence,” the Iranian government announced, according to Tasnim. “To this day, such violence has not been seen except in the behavior of the American-trained ISIS.”

Earlier on Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States and Israel of interfering in the unrest. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi echoed the claim, sharing a graphic video showing crowds attacking police officers, beating them to death and setting their bodies on fire.

”Does this look like a ‘protest’ for FREEDOM? Or the exact kind of scenes that the US Administration would NEVER tolerate within its own borders?” he wrote in a post on X.

A total nationwide internet blackout was imposed last week, which was still in effect as of the time of writing. Just days earlier, a social media account associated with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency openly supported the riots and claimed it had operatives embedded in the crowds.

US President Donald Trump has also egged on the protests and alluded to military intervention.