United States President Donald Trump says Iran is in “big trouble” and again warned he could order military strikes as videos showed antigovernment protests raging across the country, and authorities blacked out the internet to restrain growing unrest.

“Iran’s in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Trump said on Friday.

Trump, who bombed Iran in June and warned Tehran last week the US could come to the protesters’ aid, issued another warning, saying: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”

Rights groups have documented dozens of deaths of protesters in nearly two weeks, and, with Iranian state TV showing clashes and fires, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several police officers had been killed overnight.

“I just hope the protesters in Iran are going to be safe, because that’s a very dangerous place right now,” Trump added.

In an address broadcast on Iranian state TV earlier on Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for “unity” in the face of “terrorist actions” as mass protests continue to rock the country.

Khamenei warned against the protests, which the authorities have framed as a plot by foreign enemies, primarily the US, and reiterated a threat that authorities will crack down on the unrest.

Khamenei accused the protesters of acting on behalf of President Trump, saying rioters were attacking public property and warning that ‍Tehran would not tolerate people acting as “mercenaries for foreigners”. He accused Trump of having hands “stained with the blood” of Iranians.

At least 62 people have been killed, including 14 security personnel and 48 protesters, since demonstrations began on December 28, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an overseas-based Iranian rights group.

While President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for restraint and for the state to listen to “genuine” grievances, other voices have warned that the authorities will show no leniency, noting that the protests have received support from “foreign foes”.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said “many citizens in Tehran” had received messages from police asking them to avoid going to “locations where violence erupts”.

“This is the latest that we heard from the police, and officials are saying that the government is going … to be very strict, very decisive when it comes to acting against rioters,” he said.

Iranian rights group Hengaw reported on Friday that a protest march in Zahedan, which is dominated by the Baluch minority group, was met with gunfire that wounded several people. Protesters had taken to the streets after Friday prayers.

Cut off

The protests over economic hardship were set off by Tehran shopkeepers angered by a sharp slide in the rial’s value.

Authorities cut off internet access on Thursday in an apparent move to suppress the protest movement. The blackout was maintained on Friday, while the phone system was also down, and airlines cancelled flights in and out of the country.

Internet freedom monitor Netblocks confirmed on Friday that the blackout has lasted more than 24 hours, with “connectivity flatlining at 1 percent of ordinary levels”.

Despite the blackout, activists still managed to post videos online, which purported to show protesters chanting against the government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas.

Israel and US accused of fuelling protests

Iranian state media alleged on Friday that “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel had set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties”, without elaborating.

Iran’s foreign minister also accused the US and Israel of fuelling a growing protest movement in the country, while dismissing the possibility of direct foreign military intervention after US warnings over crackdowns on demonstrators.

“This is what the Americans and Israelis have stated, that they are directly intervening in the protests in Iran,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during a visit to Lebanon.

“They are trying to transform the peaceful protests into divisive and violent ones,” he said, adding that “regarding the possibility of seeing military intervention against Iran, we believe there is a low possibility of this because their previous attempts were total failures”.

A US Department of State spokesperson said that the foreign minister’s comments were “delusional”.

“This statement reflects a delusional attempt to deflect from the massive challenges the Iranian regime faces at home,” the spokesperson said.

Also on Friday, Iran’s self-proclaimed “Crown Prince” Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the country’s late shah, who was toppled by the Islamic revolution of 1979, appealed to Trump on social media to stage an urgent intervention.

“I have called the people to the streets to fight for their freedom and to overwhelm the security forces with sheer numbers. Last night they did that,” he wrote, referring to Thursday’s protests.

“Your threat to this criminal regime has also kept the regime’s thugs at bay. But time is of the essence. The people will be on the streets again in an hour. I am asking you to help,” he said.

However, Trump on Thursday ruled out meeting with Pahlavi, a sign that he was waiting to see how the crisis plays out before backing an opposition leader.

It is unclear how much support Pahlavi has inside Iran. But Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Associated Press news agency that his calls for demonstrations had “turned the tide” of the protests, adding that social media posts show that Iranians “were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic”.

“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests,” she continued. “Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”

Khamenei said in his TV address that protesters are “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy”, in a reference to Trump.

An audience was heard chanting, “Death to America!” (Al Jazeera)

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