X changes Iran emoji from Islamic Republic to Shah-era flag

Iran warns protesters could face death penalty as regime crackdown intensifies

Causalities mount as IRGC said to open fire on crowds, though exact toll unclear as internet blackout continues into 3rd day; EU says it backs protesters, Trump again issues threat

Iran on Saturday expanded its crackdown on the country’s massive wave of anti-regime protests, and warned that anyone taking part would be considered an “enemy of God,” a charge that automatically invokes the death penalty.

The demonstrations, which began nearly two weeks ago as mere economic protests, reached fever pitch Saturday amid a two-day internet blackout, reaching hundreds of cities in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.

As the protests became more widespread, the Islamic Republic intensified its crackdown, reportedly opening fire on crowds with live ammunition, though reports from the ground indicated that protesters successfully took over several city centers and set government buildings ablaze.

On Saturday afternoon, the country’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warned that protesters, or anyone who “helped” them, would be branded an “enemy of God,” and face capital punishment.

“Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement carried by Iranian state television read. “Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion, or indulgence.”

Death toll reportedly climbs further

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. But the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 72 people killed and over 2,300 others detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Other reports, while unconfirmed, put the death toll well into the hundreds, citing local doctors in Iran.

A witness in western Iran reached by phone told Reuters that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was deployed and opening fire in the area from which the witness was speaking, declining to be identified for safety.

Earlier Saturday, the Telegraph reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had put the IRGC on the highest state of alert to quell the protests.

A doctor in northwestern Iran said that since Friday, large numbers of injured protesters had been brought to hospitals. Some were badly beaten, suffering head injuries and broken legs and arms, as well as deep cuts. At least 20 people in one hospital had been shot with live ammunition, five of whom later died.

An anonymous Tehran doctor cited by TIME magazine said Saturday that 217 protester deaths, “most by live ammunition,” were registered in six hospitals in the city as of Thursday night.

According to Iranian state TV, several more members of the country’s security forces were killed Saturday, as the regime’s media apparatus tried to portray a sense of control.

Instead of showing footage of the protests, state TV repeatedly played an orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honors Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war.

“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night.”

That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.

“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.

Another video verified by Reuters showed protesters chanting: “The crowd is coming. Death to the dictator. Death to Khamenei.”

Other videos posted to social media showed protesters breaking into government buildings and setting them ablaze, with unverified footage purporting to show regime forces in retreat from several city centers.

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan. In it, a protester appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.

The Young Journalists’ Club, associated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran. It also reported a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer was killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another in Gilan, as well as one person slain in Mashhad.

The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, also close to the Guard, claimed authorities detained nearly 200 people belonging to what it described as “operational terrorist teams.” It alleged those arrested had weapons, including firearms, grenades and gasoline bombs.

The IRGC’s public relations office said three members of the Basij security force were killed and five wounded during clashes with what it described as “armed rioters” in Gachsaran, in the southwest.

Another security officer was stabbed to death in Hamedan, in western Iran. The son of a senior officer, the late Brigadier General Nourali Shoushtari, was killed in the Ahmadabad area of Mashhad, in the northeast. Two other security personnel were killed over the past two nights in Shushtar, in Khuzestan province.

State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.

EU chief says bloc ‘stands fully behind’ protesters

Joining the US in its vocal support for the protesters, European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said Europe “stands fully behind” the movement and condemned the “violent repression” against the demonstrators.

“Tehran’s streets, and cities around the world, echo with the footsteps of Iranian women and men demanding freedom. Freedom to speak, to gather, to travel and above all to live freely. Europe stands fully behind them,” von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, posted online.

“We unequivocally condemn the violent repression of these legitimate demonstrations. Those responsible will be remembered on the wrong side of history,” she added.

US President Donald Trump, who has for over a week warned Iran against violent crackdown on protesters, on Saturday issued another threat against the regime.

“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” Trump posted on his Truth Social network without elaborating further.

He earlier shared a tweet from US Senator Lindsey Graham warning that the “brutality” being carried out against protesters in Iran “will not go unchallenged.”

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, had written that the Trump administration “was not the Obama administration when it comes to standing up to the Iranian ayatollah and his religious Nazi henchmen, and standing behind the people of Iran protesting for a better life.”

“To the regime leadership: your brutality against the great people of Iran will not go unchallenged,” added Graham.

Trump has warned several times that Washington will strike Iran if the Islamic Republic kills protesters, as mass demonstrations have swept the country over the past two weeks.

X changes Iran flag emoji to Shah-era ensign

As the leaders of the US and EU rallied behind the protests, the social media platform X itself got in on the action Saturday, replacing the Iranian flag emoji on its site from the current Islamic Republic flag to the old Shah-era lion and sun flag.

The change was sparked by an X user reaching out to one of the social media platform’s executives, Nikita Bier, and asking that they change the flag icon. Bier quickly responded: “Give me a few hours.”

A few hours later, the Shah-era flag was all over the site, and since it retroactively replaced all previous uses of the flag emoji in usernames, it led to a brief period where Iran’s official government accounts had the lion and sun flag next to their names instead of the current one.

After the change went viral, Iran’s official accounts removed the flag emoji from their pages and replaced it with their crescent and sword national emblem, which is depicted in the center of the Islamic Republic’s flag.

Later Saturday, a protester in London briefly replaced the flag of the Islamic Republic at its UK embassy with the lion and sun flag.

A video posted to social media shows a man on the balcony of the embassy, near Hyde Park, swapping the flags to cheers from hundreds of demonstrators below.

The old flag stayed in place for several minutes before being removed, witnesses on site tell AFP.

The lion and sun flag has been seen in several videos coming out of Iran since the protests began, and the exiled son of the last ruling Shah, Reza Pahlavi has taken an outsized role in the movement, and on Saturday called for more nights of demonstrations.

Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could have been cause for a death sentence in the past, and now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.

In a Persian-language video statement, Pahlavi appeared to try to escalate the anti-regime efforts, saying: “Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centers.” He added that he was “preparing to return to my homeland” on a day he believed was “very near.”