Iran death toll climbs as unrest spreads nationwide

The rising death toll comes despite increasingly explicit warnings from Trump.

By World Israel News Staff

As anti-regime protests continue to spread and intensify well into their second week, the death toll in Iran is rising, despite repeated warnings from U.S. President Donald Trump against the killing of demonstrators.

According to a report published Tuesday by The Associated Press, at least 35 people have been killed in the ongoing wave of unrest. The report, citing activists on the ground, said the demonstrations show no signs of subsiding and are continuing to expand across the country, driven primarily by Iran’s severe economic crisis.

The casualty figures were provided by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which said more than 1,200 people have been detained since the protests began more than a week ago.

According to the group, those killed include 29 protesters, four children, and two members of Iran’s security forces. Demonstrations have spread to more than 250 locations across 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces, underscoring the breadth of the unrest.

Iranian state-affiliated media have acknowledged mounting casualties among security forces. Fars News Agency, which is considered close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported late Monday that approximately 250 police officers and 45 members of the Basij militia have been injured during clashes with protesters.

The rising death toll comes despite increasingly explicit warnings from Trump.

On Friday, responding to the unrest, the president warned Tehran that Washington would retaliate if demonstrators were killed. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said that if Iran “shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” adding that the U.S. was “locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Iranian officials quickly pushed back against the threat. Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on X that “any interventionist hand that attacks Iran’s security under any pretext whatsoever will be exposed to a response,” warning that Iran’s security is “a red line.”

Trump reiterated his stance Sunday night while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. Asked about the continued killings following his warning, he said the United States was monitoring the situation closely. “We are watching it very closely,” Trump said. “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they are going to get hit very hard by the United States.”

As protests widen and casualties mount, the standoff between Tehran and Washington is sharpening, with the unrest inside Iran increasingly intersecting with heightened international pressure and blunt public warnings from the White House.