PARIS: Acknowledging thousands of deaths in the recent protests that swept the country, Iran’s supreme leader blamed the United States and Israel for organising the deadly violence.

“At least 5,000 people have been killed, including about 500 security personnel,” an Iranian officiail said, as authorities ordered gradual restoration of internet access after a 10-day shutdown aimed at quelling riots.

Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years.

Officials said the protests were peaceful until foreign influence turned them violent.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if protesters continued to be killed on the streets or were executed. In a social media post on Friday, he thanked Tehran’s leaders, saying they had called off scheduled mass executions.

Official puts death toll around 5,000; judiciary announces executions will go ahead

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, however, made it cler that local or international criminals would be punished. “We will not drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished,” Ira­n’s state media quoted him as saying.

On Sunday, the judiciary indicated that executions may go ahead.

“A series of actions have been identified as Mohareb, which is among the most severe Islamic punishments,” Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told a presser.

Mohareb, an Islamic legal term meaning to wage war against God, is punishable by death under Iranian law.

In an interview with Politico on Saturday, Trump said, “It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran”.

The Iranian official in the region said the verified death toll was unlikely to get much higher.

“The final toll is not expected to increase sharply,” the official said, adding that “Israel and armed groups abroad” had supported and equipped those taking to the streets.

The Iranian government regularly blames unrest on foreign enemies, including the United States and Israel - an arch foe of the Islamic Republic which launched military strikes on Iran in June.

Highest death toll in Kurdish areas

The Iranian official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, claimed some of the heaviest clashes and highest number of deaths were in the Iranian Kurdish areas in the country’s northwest. Kurdish separatists have been active in those areas and flare-ups there have been among the most violent in past periods of unrest.

Some sources said that armed Kurdish separatist groups sought to cross the border into Iran from Iraq in a sign of foreign entities potentially seeking to take advantage of instability in the country.

The Norway-based Iranian Kurdish rights group Hengaw said some of the heaviest clashes during protests that erupted in late December were in Kurdish areas in the northwest.

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities said internet access was being gradually restored.

Some internet access has been restored in Iran, a monitor said on Sunday. “Traffic data indicate a significant return to some online services including Google, suggesting that heavily filtered access has been enabled, corroborating user reports of partial restoration,” Netblocks said in a social media post.

The Tasnim news agency earlier reported “the relevant authorities announced that internet access would be gradually restored”, but gave no further details.

On Sunday morning, some foreign news agencies were able to connect to the internet from its Tehran office, though the vast majority of internet providers and mobile internet remain cut. Outgoing international calls have been possible since Tuesday, and text messaging was restored on Saturday morning.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2026