Iran riots escalate as government shuts down internet, protesters start fires – National
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after authorities shut down the internet to quell growing unrest, as video showed buildings and cars burning in anti-government protests in the streets of several cities.
This frame was taken from a video released on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning cars during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP).
In a televised address, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed he would not back down, accusing protesters of representing émigré opposition groups and the United States, as rights groups reported police firing on protesters in the south.
The unrest has not involved as many sectors of society as other political, economic or human rights issues in the past decade and a half, but dozens are reported dead and the authorities appear vulnerable due to the poor economic situation and the consequences of last year’s war with Israel and the United States.
While the initial protests focused on the economy, with the rial currency losing half its value against the dollar last year and inflation rising 40 percent in December, they have launched slogans aimed directly at the authorities.
Buildings, cars are burning
The shutdown of the Internet has greatly reduced the amount of information coming out. Calls to Iran were not going through. At least 17 flights between Dubai and Iran have been cancelled, the Dubai Airport website said.
The protests started late last month when shopkeepers and shopkeepers protested the rise in currency and rial prices, but soon spread to universities and provincial cities, with young men clashing with security forces.
In this still, video taken by a freelancer by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people blocking an intersection during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on Thursday Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP).
Images published by state television overnight showed what it said were burning buses, cars and motorbikes as well as fires in train stations and underground banks. He blamed the unrest on the People’s Mujahedin Organization, an overseas-based opposition group that split after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and is also known as the MKO.
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A state television reporter standing in front of the fires on Shariati Street in the Caspian Sea port of Rasht said: “This looks like a war zone – all the shops have been destroyed.”
Videos confirmed by Reuters to have been taken from the capital Tehran show hundreds of people marching. In one of the videos, a woman could be heard shouting “Death to Khamenei!”
Iran’s Hengaw rights group reported that a protest march after Friday prayers in Zahedan, home to a large Baluch minority, was met with gunfire that injured several people.
The authorities tried a two-pronged approach – describing the economic protests as legitimate while condemning what they called violent riots and military crackdowns.
A man rides his bicycle as others walk while shops are closed during a protest at a mall in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi).
The Supreme Leader, the highest authority in Iran, in addition to the elected president and parliament, used harsh language in the speech.
“The Islamic Republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of respected people. It will not back down when faced with the destroyers,” he said, accusing those involved in the chaos of wanting to please US President Donald Trump.
Justice chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was quoted by state media as saying that the punishment of the protesters would be “decisive, severe, and without legal reprieve.”
Various foreign opposition groups in Iran have called for more demonstrations, and protesters chanted slogans including “Death to the dictator!” and praising the monarchy that was overthrown in 1979.
Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah, told Iranians on social media: “The eyes of the world are upon you. Go to the streets.”
In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP).
However, the level of support within Iran for the monarchy or MKO, the most opposed émigré opposition groups, is disputed.
Trump, who bombed Iran last summer and warned Tehran last week that the US could help the protesters, said on Friday he would not meet with Pahlavi and was “not sure it would be appropriate” to support him.
Germany condemned the violence against the protesters, saying that the right to demonstrate and assemble must be guaranteed and the media in Iran must be able to report freely.
